Medical professionals get training to prescribe opioid addiction treatment drug Suboxone

About 200 medical professionals will get training Saturday to make opioid addiction treatment more accessible for those who need it. Demand is high for medication-assisted treatment. But, according to the Ohio Department of Health, just 2 percent of Ohio doctors are able to prescribe addiction treatment drug buprenorphine, the main ingredient in Suboxone. As a result, addicts desperate to get off heroin can be forced into buying it on the black market. Or they have to spend months on wait lists, a delay that can mean the difference between life and death. More training allows more medical professionals, such as primary care doctors, to be involved in curbing the opioid epidemic.