The Way the U.S. Regulates Methadone Isn’t Working

Event Recap

February 21, 2020

In 2017, the opioid-related overdose crisis killed more than 47,000 people in the United States.

Yet even though multiple studies have shown methadone reducing opioid overdose deaths by more than 50 percent, there are many places in the United States where it’s easier to get heroin than methadone.

In Liquid Handcuffs: A Documentary to Free Methadone, the directors Helen Redmond and Marilena Marchetti try to find answers to this and other perplexing questions raised by the way the war on drugs is prosecuted in the United States.

In early 2020, Redmond came to the Open Society Foundations’ New York office for a screening of the film and a broader discussion of the benefits of harm reduction policies.

Listen to the audio of the event to learn more.

Topics

Harm Reduction

Drug Policy

The Prescription for Saving Lives

A person dies every five minutes from overdose in the United States. We have the means to dramatically reduce those numbers. But the medication naloxone is suddenly scarce and prices are too high. What needs to happen next to save lives.

November 23, 2021 | Maya Doe-Simkins & Eliza Wheeler

Faith and Healing

Q&A: Preaching Harm Reduction

A woman standing in front of a microphone at a church

By bringing harm reduction to the faith community, Faith in Public Life is using the church to save lives in the face of the overdose crisis.

July 7, 2020

End the Drug War

Reframing the Blame for the War on Drugs

The war on drugs is better understood as a war on people. To stop this useless and unjust destruction, we must change how we think—and talk—about people who use drugs.

May 10, 2019 | Louise Vincent

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