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Opinion: Addiction treatment is broken. Here’s what it should look like

Many policy makers, and even many Americans, see people with addictions as "those people." But they are really our people and, given the proper treatment and support, recovery is the…
Source: AP Photo/Ted S. Warren

“If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply just to a baseball stadium in a cornfield. I believe that the same principle will work for creating affordable, effective treatment for addiction in the United States.

Despite well-meaning rhetoric and funding from sources both public and private, the U.S. has an appalling dearth of person-centered care for the millions of Americans living with addiction, the biggest public health crisis of our time.

I have worked in the recovery field for more than 30 years. I have seen individuals with addiction recover because they got the care they needed. Sadly,

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