The trial of Hunter Biden highlighted his struggles with addiction, a struggle that resonates with millions in this country. Two-thirds of all Americans say drug addiction has either personally affected them or their families. Experts say there are common challenges for those struggling to get clean and recover and those who support them. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Dr. Scott Hadland.
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Amna Nawaz:
The trial of Hunter Biden highlighted his own struggles with addiction, a struggle that resonates with millions in this country. Two-thirds of all Americans say drug addiction has either personally affected them or their families.
And more than 40 percent say they know someone who's died from a drug overdose. Every individual story and addiction battle is unique, but experts say there are common challenges for those struggling to get clean and recover and those who support them.
We're joined now by Dr. Scott Hadland, who specializes in adolescent addiction. He's with Mass General Hospital for Children and Harvard Medical School.
So, Dr. Hadland, we're not talking about the legal or political conversation around the trial, but this specific addiction piece that resonated with so many people. You have said what struck you most is how people were talking about it. What did you mean by that?
Dr. Scott Hadland, Massachusetts General Hospital:
Right.
I paid close attention to this trial because — not because I was particularly focused on the legal aspects, but really sort of focused on how we as a nation talk about people who struggle with addiction.
And one thing I noticed is that a lot of the coverage of this case centered on Hunter Biden and described him first using terms like, for example, addict, terms that can be rather sanitizing and really kind of put the person's condition first before they're even a person.
I usually talk about people who struggle with addiction as exactly that, a person with a substance use disorder or a person who's struggling with drugs or alcohol. And I noticed that a lot of the coverage really sort of used this language and this terminology that can be hurtful and harmful for the many people in America who struggle with addiction or know somebody who struggles.
Amna Nawaz:
As we noted, two-thirds of Americans say they're impacted in some way by addiction.
When you take a closer look at substance abuse disorders in America, though, some 47 million Americans aged 12 or older say they struggled with substance abuse in the past year. Back in 2020, that number was just over 40 million. What should we understand about what's behind that increase?
Dr. Scott Hadland:
Well, there's a lot of different things that go into the increase that we have experienced.
I mean, least of all, we're in the wake of a pandemic that really affected people. It isolated folks. It made it difficult for a while for people to access health care and it worsened people's mental health. And these are all things that we know can potentially underlie addiction or worsening addiction.
Amna Nawaz:
And we have seen recently, for all the attention around opioids, that opioid deaths have been slightly in decline recently. But has there been a shift in what kinds of drugs people are using or what they have access to?
Dr. Scott Hadland:
We do have some reassuring recent data that shows that there's been a slight downtick in the number of overdose deaths across the country.
But to put this in context, we're still at a point where more than 100,000 Americans die every year of drug overdose. Teen overdoses — I take care of teenagers in my clinic who struggle with addiction. Teen overdoses are at an all-time high and now killing the equivalent of a high school classroom of teenagers every week across this country.
And we have had more than a million deaths since the turn of the century. So, even though we have a slight indication that things are improving, I don't think we should sort of get too excited about this, because we have a lot of work to do here.
Amna Nawaz:
Tell us about treatment, specifically how wide the gap is between the need that we know exists and what people are able to access, and also how that access varies based on who you are.
Dr. Scott Hadland:
We have a lot of difficulties accessing addiction treatment across the country.
I see this all the time with my own patients who might be seeking out multiple programs before they ever make it even into my clinic to get treatment with me. And many people, in particular, young people, sort of bounce around just trying to find high-quality treatment.
People encounter barriers because their insurance won't accept the program, or maybe their insurance might cover the program, but they have to pay large out-of-pocket co-pays. And all of these things stand in the way of people getting addiction treatment.
And so this is happening for me in the context of Boston, a relatively well-resourced city. Imagine what it's like to be outside of a city that has all the health care that Boston or another big city has. And you can imagine that there are enormous geographic limitations in terms of what people can access across the country, huge gaps all across the country, particularly in rural areas of the country.
And then we know that there are gaps by socioeconomic status, whereby people who have sort of insufficient insurance or may not have insurance at all don't get access to any treatment. And then layered on top of this, we know that there are big gaps by race, ethnicity, language, and a number of other factors.
Amna Nawaz:
You mentioned the language piece of this, about how we talk about addiction in this country.
I want to talk more about the family and friends part of this. What's important to understand about the impact of addiction on the people who support someone with the substance abuse disorder?
Dr. Scott Hadland:
What really struck about this trial is that Hunter Biden is in the limelight, but he is somebody's son. And we're so acutely aware of this because he's the president's son.
And it's a reminder to all of us that, when somebody struggles with addiction, they're always somebody's son or daughter. There's somebody's loved one, a family member. And so it's really important for us to remember that, first and foremost, people who struggle with addiction are people, they're humans.
And so it's really important that we do what we can to help them feel as though they can go into treatment. And so, when we use stigmatizing language, terms like addict, it sends a message across the country that people who struggle with addiction aren't welcome in health care environments or aren't welcome in their communities.
And that makes it difficult for people to access treatment. It makes it difficult for family and friends who are loved ones of somebody with addiction to help them get into treatment. And so we need to show compassion to people who are struggling, because that compassion, and when we use non-stigmatizing language, that helps people get into doors of clinics like mine.
Amna Nawaz:
That is Dr. Scott Hadland from Mass General Hospital for children and Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Hadland, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time.
Dr. Scott Hadland:
Thank you.
