Emily Dufton, M.A. ’10, Ph.D. ’14, authored “Addiction, Inc.: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America’s Forgotten War on Drugs,” which offers a historical analysis of addiction treatment policy in America.
The book traces how medication-assisted treatment, widely considered the gold standard for opioid use disorder, emerged during the Nixon-era war on drugs as a federally supported public health experiment before evolving into a largely privatized system. Drawing on extensive archival research and more than 100 interviews with policymakers, medical experts, pharmaceutical lobbyists and patients, Dufton charts the transformation of a once publicly funded initiative into a profit-driven system marked by inequities in access and care.
Her book presents the case that the United States built an addiction treatment system that often complicates recovery rather than facilitating it, while also examining what changes are needed to address ongoing gaps in care.