Two years ago, Tyler Yates lost his best friend to an overdose. At the urging of another person in the recovery community, Yates said his best friend stopped taking buprenorphine — a medication used to treat opioid use disorder that helps reduce drug cravings.
About two weeks later, his friend returned to use and died.
Despite research showing that medications for opioid use disorder are highly effective, their use can often be met with judgment because people consider them “substituting one drug for another” and lack understanding of how they help in recovery…