{"id":31878,"date":"2025-07-16T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T09:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31878"},"modified":"2025-07-16T09:28:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T09:28:54","slug":"upended-by-meth-some-communities-are-paying-users-to-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=31878","title":{"rendered":"Upended by Meth, Some Communities Are Paying Users to Quit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jamie Mains showed up for her checkup so high that there was no point in pretending otherwise. At least she wasn\u2019t shooting fentanyl again; medication was suppressing those cravings. Now it was methamphetamine that manacled her, keeping her from eating, sleeping, thinking straight. Still, she could not stop injecting.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive me something that\u2019s going to help me with this,\u201d she begged her doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing,\u201d the doctor replied.<\/p>\n

Overcoming meth addiction has become one of the biggest challenges of the national drug crisis. Fentanyl deaths have been dropping, in part because of medications that can reverse overdoses and curb the urge to use opioids. But no such prescriptions exist for meth, which works differently on the brain.<\/p>\n

In recent years, meth, a highly addictive stimulant, has been spreading aggressively across the country, rattling communities<\/a> and increasingly involved<\/a> in overdoses. Lacking a medical treatment, a growing number of clinics are trying a startlingly different strategy: To induce patients to stop using meth, they pay them.<\/p>\n

The approach has been around for decades, but most clinics were uneasy<\/a> about adopting it because of its bluntly transactional nature<\/a>. Patients typically come in twice a week for a urine drug screen. If they test negative, they are immediately handed a small reward: a modest store voucher, a prize or debit card cash. The longer they abstain from use, the greater the rewards, with a typical cumulative value of nearly $600. The programs, which usually last three to six months, operate on the principle of positive reinforcement<\/a>, with incentives intended to encourage repetition of desired behavior \u2014 somewhat like a parent who permits a child to stay up late as a reward for good grades.<\/p>\n

Research<\/a> shows that the approach, known in addiction treatment as \u201ccontingency management<\/a>,\u201d or CM, produces better outcomes<\/a> for stimulant addiction than counseling or cognitive<\/a> behavioral therapy. Follow-up studies<\/a> of patients a year after they successfully completed programs show that about half remained stimulant-free.<\/p>\n

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Jamie Mains showed up for her checkup so high that there was no point in pretending otherwise. At least she wasn\u2019t shooting fentanyl again; medication was suppressing those cravings. Now it was methamphetamine that manacled her, keeping her from eating, sleeping, thinking straight. Still, she could not stop injecting.\u201cGive me something that\u2019s going to help me with this,\u201d she begged her doctor.\u201cThere is nothing,\u201d the doctor replied.Overcoming meth addiction has become one of the biggest challenges of the national drug crisis. Fentanyl deaths have been dropping, in part because of medications that can reverse overdoses and curb the urge to use opioids. But no such prescriptions exist for meth, which works differently on the brain.In recent years, meth, a highly addictive stimulant, has been spreading aggressively across the country, rattling communities and increasingly involved in overdoses. Lacking a medical treatment, a growing number of clinics are trying a startlingly different strategy: To induce patients to stop using meth, they pay them.The approach has been around for decades, but most clinics were uneasy about adopting it because of its bluntly transactional nature. Patients typically come in twice a week for a urine drug screen. If they test negative, they are immediately handed a small reward: a modest store voucher, a prize or debit card cash. The longer they abstain from use, the greater the rewards, with a typical cumulative value of nearly $600. The programs, which usually last three to six months, operate on the principle of positive reinforcement, with incentives intended to encourage repetition of desired behavior \u2014 somewhat like a parent who permits a child to stay up late as a reward for good grades.Research shows that the approach, known in addiction treatment as \u201ccontingency management,\u201d or CM, produces better outcomes for stimulant addiction than counseling or cognitive behavioral therapy. Follow-up studies of patients a year after they successfully completed programs show that about half remained stimulant-free.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31880,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31878"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31881,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31878\/revisions\/31881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}