Implant could stop drug addiction

This could be the method that stems heroin addiction.

Buprenorphine, the active ingredient in the new implant, has been the drug of choice for combatting what has become an unprecedented opioid epidemic in the U.S. From 1999 to 2008, the rate of overdose deaths from painkillers and heroin quadrupled. Today, at least 2.1 million Americans are struggling with addiction to drugs like Oxycodone; more than 400,000 are dependent on heroin.

Probuphine is not so much a new drug as a new delivery method for buprenorphine, the old one. Nicknamed “bupe,” it’s an opioid derivative whose efficacy in clinical trials earned it the title “the wonder drug.” Buprenorphine works by binding to the same opioid receptors as drugs like heroin, without producing the high.

Sold under the name Subutex (or, when combined with the drug naloxone, Suboxone), it has given those dependent on opioids a fighting chance at recovery, allowing them to get off more dangerous opioids without the debilitating effects of withdrawal.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.