People who abuse substances do so for a reason - to help to alleviate mental and emotional pain. As AEI's Sally Satel explains, to treat opioid addiction, it's important to understand addiction's root causes.
Opioid pain medications have been abused, in part, because they are over-prescribed. But as AEI'S Sally Satel explains, the indiscriminate efforts to control prescribing is making life miserable for a group of people that needs these drugs to manage intense, chronic pain.
As AEI's Sally Satel explains, a balanced approach to solving the opioid epidemic requires compassionate interventions that will first stabilize drug abusers and then help them find an emotionally satisfying purpose in life.
