What should someone who is looking to overcome an opioid addiction do? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Opioid overdose deaths reached their highest rate ever in the US in the last 12 months, with a new study showing that expanding prescribing medications like naloxone, doesn’t help. What can stem this tide? Eric Strain, a substance use disorders expert at Johns Hopkins, says those who want to leave their addictions behind must look for the right treatment.

Strain: For the individual who is looking for treatment and wants to move forward I think that the critical thing is to not just say well I’ll take whatever I can find, but to really find some treatment provider or program that will do something more than simply prescribe a medication.  That goes back to the difficulties in finding quality treatment, because we’re not paying for quality treatment.  :28

Strain says until government steps in to mandate what constitutes quality treatment things are not likely to improve. He says it is known what helps keep people in treatment once they start, so implementing that first may be one step in the right direction. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.