When Ted C., a heroin junkie and former baseball umpire, heard about an experimental new treatment for his addiction, he was skeptical. Doctors told him that a simple pill called buprenorphine could eradicate his enormous craving for the narcotic, which he had been snorting daily for several years. It sounded too good to be true--junkies live in fear of the agony that arrives when a hit wears off--so Ted bought an extra bag of heroin the night before he took buprenorphine for the first time. Just in case.
But this time there was no pain. "I went to the clinic, took...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
