The plan is comprised of two main parts: funding for projects that will help develop or facilitate treatments for opioid addiction and overdose, and funding for programs meant to improve the management of pain via research into how acute pain becomes chronic pain (with the hope that someday we can stop that from happening), as well as the development of new, nonaddictive pain treatments.

…For instance, though there are three approved drugs to help people wean off opioids (methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone), Collins and the others note that most people living with opioid addiction never actually get started on these treatments, and of those who do, 50 percent relapse within half a year.

“Research to reformulate these medications to improve adherence, as well as to develop new, more flexible therapies, is needed to help those who have opioid use disorder,” the authors wrote.

US Health Officials’ New Plan to Fight the Opioid Crisis: Stop Chronic Pain Before It Starts

hmmmm