Emily Dufton: "Addiction, Inc."

Despite epidemic levels of overdoses in the United States, by 2020, only twenty percent of Americans suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) received Medic*tion-assisted treatment (MAT), the gold standard of addiction treatment, which uses methadone, buprenorphine, or naltrexone to reduce illicit drug use and curb the symptoms of withdrawal. While MAT is the most effective treatment available for OUD, it’s also the most controversial, the most expensive, and the most difficult to access. And yet, the medications at the center of this treatment—and the private industries that distribute them—generate roughly sixteen billion dollars each year, on par with national sales of coffee and pet food.

In Addiction, Inc., historian Emily Dufton explains how this promising avenue of treatment emerged during President Richard Nixon’s war on drugs in 1971 as a radical experiment in public health, when hundreds of federally-funded treatment clinics opened nationwide. Dufton then explores how these nationalized clinics gave way to an immensely profitable private industry that offers poor care at high costs to an insufficient number of people. Drawing on original research and over a hundred interviews with policymakers, medical experts, pharmaceutical lobbyists, and patients and their families, she tells a gripping story of squandered potential and missed opportunities, as MAT transformed from a revolutionary political project launched from the White House itself into a commercial success—and a public health disaster.

Urgent, eye-opening, and deeply human, Addiction, Inc. reveals how, over the past fifty years, the United States built an addiction treatment system that made recovery harder instead of easier, and what it will take to change its course.

Emily Dufton will be joined in conversation by Dr. Megan Buresh, Johns Hopkins professor of Medicine and Epidemiology.

About the Author:

Emily Dufton is the author of Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America. The recipient of a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Smithsonian magazine, and other publications.

About the Moderator:

Dr. Megan Buresh is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins. She is board certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine. She is medical director of the Johns Hopkins Bayview Inpatient Addiction Consult Service. She is a medical provider at BHLI Project Connections At Re-Entry (PCARE) van, which provides low threshold buprenorphine to patients outside Baltimore City J*il. Her programmatic and research work focuses on expanding access to addiction treatment across transitions of care and integration of substance use disorder treatment with general medical care.

About the Program:

• Doors will open to registered attendees at 6 pm.
• A local bookseller will be on-site and have books available for purchase.
• Free parking vouchers are available to program attendees who park at the Franklin Street Garage (15 W. Franklin Street) after 4pm. Ask Pratt event staff for your parking voucher prior to or after the program.
• There is no registration required for virtual attendance, simply visit the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Facebook or Youtube page.

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