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Treatment & Recovery

MAT, detox, IOP, residential, peer support, aftercare, outcomes.

Methadone's Rules Got Looser. Too Many Clinics Haven't Let Go.

A 2024 federal rule ended decades of forced daily dosing and mandatory counseling for people on methadone. On the ground, the old habits are proving hard to break.

Federal rules loosened methadone take-home and counseling requirements in 2024. STAT News reporting shows many clinics and states are still applying the old, rigid practices.

Sep 86 minRead

More in Treatment & Recovery

61 total in this section

02Treatment & RecoverySep 7

The Thing That Gets People Into Treatment Was Never the Syringe. It Was the Person Handing It Over.

Syringe service program participants are roughly five times more likely to enter treatment. The psychology behind that number is about trust, not paraphernalia — and it's what federal cuts actually put at risk.

03Treatment & RecoverySep 4

There's Still No Pill for Cocaine. The Treatment That Works Pays You Instead — and Most States Won't Cover It.

There is no FDA-approved medication for cocaine or meth addiction. The one treatment with the strongest evidence base pays people for negative drug tests — and only five state Medicaid programs cover it.

04Treatment & RecoveryAug 31

Rural ERs Still Aren't Starting Addiction Medication. Six Years of Data Just Proved It.

A CDC report published August 27 shows rural emergency departments started buprenorphine in overdose patients at a third the rate of urban EDs, a gap that hasn't moved since 2019 — a fixable protocol problem hiding inside a national success story.

05Treatment & Recovery

Earlier in Treatment & Recovery

Every piece in this section, most recent first.

Treatment & Recovery

Methadone's Rules Got Looser. Too Many Clinics Haven't Let Go.

More in Treatment & Recovery

The Thing That Gets People Into Treatment Was Never the Syringe. It Was the Person Handing It Over.

There's Still No Pill for Cocaine. The Treatment That Works Pays You Instead — and Most States Won't Cover It.

Rural ERs Still Aren't Starting Addiction Medication. Six Years of Data Just Proved It.

Washington Built the Playbook That Cut Overdose Deaths. It Just Told States to Stop Using It.

Two Years of Take-Home Methadone Proved the Critics Wrong. Clinics Should Act Like It.

Two Psychedelic Drugs Got Rejected. Both Are Back at the FDA's Door — And the VA Just Widened the Stakes

Earlier in Treatment & Recovery

Your Xanax Dose Is Not a Detail. Finnish Researchers Just Showed It's the Whole Risk Curve.

Cravings Aren't Constant. A Study of 400,000 People Trying to Quit Drinking Shows When They Actually Hit

The Meth Sentencing Law Is Still Fighting a Drug That Doesn't Exist Anymore

One-Third of Methadone Clinics Still Choose Punishment Over Treatment

Meth and Cocaine Still Have No Approved Medication — and the One Treatment That Works Is Starving for Funding

A Hospital Sent Jean Descamps to a Bus Stop Instead of Treatment. He Died Hours Later.

The Hospital Didn't Believe Him. Twelve Hours Later, He Was Dead.

Treatment Centers Are Seeing a Kratom Wave the DEA's New Rule Won't Touch

Congress Deleted Doctors' Paperwork Excuse for Treating Addiction. Most Kept the Stigma Anyway.

A New Methadone Bill Calls Itself Reform. It Would Still Decide Access by ZIP Code.

A Nicotine Pouch Looks Like Nothing in Someone's Lip. That's the Whole Design Problem.

He Was Seven Minutes Late to His Methadone Dose. The Clinic's Rulebook Nearly Killed Him.

Kentucky's Largest Treatment Company Called It Recovery. Its Own Workers Called It Warehousing.

Arizona's New AI Chatbot Will Find You a Treatment Provider. It Won't Tell You If You'll Get In.

He Took the Same Pill for 20 Years. Coming Off It Nearly Killed Him Faster Than Staying On Ever Would.

Arizona's Meth Deaths Spike Every July. The State Still Hasn't Applied for the Treatment That Works.

Arizona Wrapped an AI Chatbot Around Its Treatment Locator. It Didn't Fix What's Broken Underneath.

There's Still No Pill for Meth Addiction. There's a Gift Card, and It's Working.

Kentucky Turned $865,000 in Opioid Settlement Money Into a Lifeline for Five Counties. Arizona Has $1.2 Billion and Nothing Like It.

Heroin Basically Disappeared From the Drug Supply. Recovery Culture Hasn't Caught Up.

Arizona Firefighters Are Eating Psilocybin Chocolates for PTSD. The FDA Just Decided to Take It Seriously.

The First Benzodiazepine Prescription Doesn't Look Like a Drug Problem. That's Exactly How It Becomes One.

The World Has More Cocaine Than Ever, and Still Nothing to Prescribe For It

Florida Paramedics Are Handing Out Buprenorphine at the Scene. It's Working.

The Seven-in-a-Hundred Problem: Alcohol Kills as Many Americans as Fentanyl, and 93 Percent Never Get Treatment

For the First Time in Decades, Stimulants Kill More Americans Than Opioids. The Treatment System Has No Answer.

Your Pharmacist Can Now Prescribe Buprenorphine. That's a Bigger Deal Than It Sounds.

One in Six. The Only Promising Meth Treatment Works — But Barely.

Prescribed Into a Corner: The Benzodiazepine Dependence Millions Don't Know They Have

Gift Cards, Urinalysis, and the Only Proven Tool for Meth: Why Contingency Management Is Finally Getting Its Due

The First New Quit-Smoking Drug in Two Decades Is Ten Days from an FDA Decision

The High That Was Already in the Cupboard

The Only Drug Combo That's Worked Against Meth Is Still Waiting on the FDA

The Door That Opens When You're About to Lose Everything

In Four States, Doctors Can Get Paid to Treat Meth Addiction. In Arizona, There Is No Treatment.

California's Contingency Management Program Just Hit 10,000 Patients. Forty-Five States Don't Have One.

Five States Are Now Paying People to Stay Sober. It's Working.

Five States Can Now Pay People to Stay Sober. Here’s Why That Number Is Still Too Small.

Contingency Management Is Coming to Medicaid — and It Could Change Everything for Methamphetamine Recovery

Ketamine's Regulatory Reckoning: Clinic Oversight, DEA Enforcement, and the Line Between Medicine and Misuse

SAMHSA's New Advisory Tells Doctors: Cannabis Use Disorder Is Real, and You Need to Screen for It

The Medication Nobody's Taking: AUD Has Three FDA-Approved Treatments. Fewer Than 3% of People With the Disorder Receive Any of Them.

Stimulants 2026: Why Cocaine and Meth Deaths Keep Rising While Opioid Deaths Fall — and What Treatment Looks Like Without a Medication

Opioid Treatment in 2026: Telehealth Won, But a New Tension Is Growing

Nicotine-Tobacco in 2026: The Substance Class with the Best Tailwinds for Recovery — and the Worst Whiplash Decade

Dissociatives in 2026: Texas Is About to Reshape Ketamine Care — and Other States Are Watching

Contingency Management Is the Only Treatment for Stimulants That Actually Works. Only Five States Cover It.

Spotlight: Cannabis Use Disorder Treatment in 2026 — What the Evidence Actually Says

After the Overdose: The 30 Days That Decide Survival

Substance Spotlight: Dissociatives — the ketamine clinic boom is meeting its first wave of regulatory pressure

How 211 Fills the Gaps SAMHSA's Directory Can't

MAT in 2026: What Medication-Assisted Treatment Is (and What It Isn't)

How to Find Addiction Treatment in America: The 2026 Guide