Addiction Treatment Forum

In New York State, opioid settlement funds are being used for anti-stigma campaigns. Opioid treatment programs (OTPs), because they treat patients with methadone, are the most stigmatized among substance use disorder (SUD) treatment programs. Yet, OTPs have been left out of the state’s anti-stigma funding. In July 2025, Allegra Schorr, president of the Coalition of…

Continue Reading NY Opioid settlement funds are still waiting to be spent: OTPs want their share

By Rob Kent A few in the media have drawn attention to the ways in which state and local governments are spending opioid settlement funds. Many of those stories have expressed concerns and made comparisons to the ways in which the tobacco settlement funds were not used to address tobacco related issues. While I share…

Continue Reading State spending of Opioid Settlement Funds – we should be concerned!

It is with deep sadness that we report the passing of Sy Demsky. He died peacefully on April 9 surrounded by family and friends. “Sy was the President of Stop Stigma Now, devoting his life to advocacy and education of medication treatment for opioid addiction,” wrote his daughter, Jordana. “Sy built strong bonds with those he…

Continue Reading May his memory be a blessing: Sy Demsky

Last month the Coalition of Medication-Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates (COMPA) of New York released its budget and policy agenda for 2025. There is a lot of news swirling around these days, so much that the opioid epidemic has fallen out of the news cycle. But it’s still here, and in fact, in New York,…

Continue Reading COMPA 2025 agenda focuses on Medicaid, NIMBY, and more

Some people called it “something for everyone.” Others just said “at last.” The spending bill approved by Congress December 23 eliminates the x-waiver for prescribing buprenorphine for opioid use disorder, something that the field at large had been calling for for years. Who did not want this: OTPs, because it makes it much easier for…

Continue Reading Massive spending bill includes huge changes for SUD field: No more x-waiver, increases for treatment

On December 13, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through its Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), proposed to expand access to treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). This is very good news for patients, providers, and other stakeholders. Here is the informational statement from SAMHSA. At the end of the article, find more comments from stakeholders.…

Continue Reading SAMHSA proposal to update methadone regulations: Welcome news for OTPs and patients

There’s a refreshing new voice in the addiction field—a voice that doesn’t always sing the establishment song, and is not afraid to question widely held beliefs. The new voice is Kirsten E. Smith, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Her latest publication, “Disease and Decision,”…

Continue Reading Lived Experience: A Refreshing New Voice

At last month’s annual meeting of AMERSA, a standing-room-only workshop gave a close-up look at what can happen when an opioid treatment program (OTP) tapers a patient too quickly from methadone. The result, in the case discussed, was psychosis. “The only tapers I thought would happen were voluntary, very slow,” she said. The focus would…

Continue Reading AMERSA report OTP medical director discusses possibility of psychosis as a result of rapid methadone taper

Today an extraordinary project conducted by the National Association for State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD) and the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) revealed how many programs and patients are in Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs). All 1,826 OTPs were surveyed; the response rate was 85%. From that response, the census…

Continue Reading First-of-a-kind OTP census shows vast majority of patients treated with methadone

In the setting of open-access opioid treatment programs (OTPs), the authors of this study in Drug and Alcohol Dependence sought to determine if patients with benzodiazepine exposure at study entry would have retention rates similar to those without benzodiazepine exposure. Comparing the retention rate for the two groups, the authors found that baseline benzodiazepine exposure…

Continue Reading Study: OTP Retention Unaffected by Benzodiazepines

The Opioid Treatment Access Act (OTAA) would allow non-opioid-treatment-provider (OTP) physicians with training in addiction to prescribe methadone for opioid use disorder (OUD). This is from Section 4, the highly contested OTAA provision, which the big proprietary OTPs oppose (see the recently launched https://programnotapill.com/) but which some of the smaller ones are in favor of. Leave…

Continue Reading OTPs facing increasing pressure from supporters of OTAA

Getting methadone in prison: It takes work When a correctional system entertains the idea of something established medicine accepts as gold standard – namely, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) with methadone or buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUT) – there is an uphill battle ahead, even for those within the system who believe in it. In Rhode…

Continue Reading Part 3: Methadone in Rhode Island corrections, the psychology of working with another discipline

The American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence (AATOD) and Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs) have been at the forefront of trying to reform methadone treatment, always with an eye on patient safety and quality treatment, also while making treatment more accessible. But, as AATOD president Mark Parrino puts it, it’s important to ask “Access…

Continue Reading Mythbusting on AATOD and methadone/buprenorphine bills