Levin Wants Help for Addicts

Michigan’s senior US Senator is pushing to make the powerful opiate buprenorphine more available to patients that need help breaking a heroin addiction. U.S. Senator Carl Levin, along with US Senator Orrin Hatch, said that while physicians may now prescribe the drug, the restrictions remain tight and the drug is often not available. And current law prohibits doctors from treating more than 100 patients with the drug and say they have to turn away patients. Levin says there have been “remarkable stories of success” in the use of the drug to help addicts kick their heroin habit. They are pushing to explore changes that could help expand access to the drug.