Addiction Is Treatable! 

No One Has to Die!!!

Hello my name is Dr. Morris Franco

This week we will be discussing addiction 

This talk can be for anyone

clinicians, treatment consumers, friends, family and anyone who is curious

I will offer a model for effective ways to help people using and abusing substances that would like to stop their use, moderate it or just create more safety, curiosity and awareness around their use.

This will defer from AA and other abstinence only approaches, but can work in tandem with them

this is based in self-medication theory and harm reduction principles

and Dr. Andrew Tatarsky’s Integrated Harm Reduction Psychotherapy model

Pardon the microphone troubles working on my AV skills

PSA:

I use the word “user” at times to describe people who use drugs in this podcast

This can be a highly stigmatized term

The words we use are very important particularly in such a stigmatized field

I will try my best in the future to be more conscious of this

Phrases that could be better include “people or person who uses drugs” 

or words like person, human, treatment consumers, or clients

Help lines:

Free and confidential “trip sitters” so people don’t have to use alone:

1-800-484-3731

https://www.neverusealone.com/

SAMHSA national hotline:

1-800-662-4357

NALOXONE FOR SALE ON AMAZON!

https://a.co/d/fdZrcJy

Video Links:

Harm reduction with John Oliver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMpCGD7b_H4

Dr. Andrew Tatarsky on Harm Reduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsW7lBXwM9g

Harm reduction as an act of compassion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUgxnYEA8F0

Forget what you learned in DARE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fng5fK0wRl4

One of the many TED talks available:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfzkBGgxXGE

Another great Harm reduction TED talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU_MWjIUFmE

Urge surfing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASG1c1EqXyc

Identified patient:

https://youtu.be/bw-TqxkKDI4?si=ld_hlZTp61ytMI-1

Research links:

Moderation as a goal:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7841874/

Overdose death stats from CDC:

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2025/20250514.htm

Supervised Injection Facilities as Harm Reduction: A Systematic Review

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34218964/#:~:text=studies%20per%20outcome%20category,n%3D7

Effectiveness of Nalaxone (narcan) distrobution:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40133970/#:~:text=Conclusions%3A%20%20Community,naloxone%20distribution%20in%20community%20settings

Effectiveness of needle and syringe exchange programs

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28399843/#:~:text=considered%20to%20have%20low%20risk,of%20coverage%2C%20were%20more%20beneficial

Effects of Medication Assisted Treatment:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29934549/#:~:text=MAT%2C%20untreated%20participants%20had%20higher,mortality%20rate%20than%20that%20with

Exploring Cannabis use as a substitute for perscription drugs:

https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-021-00520-5#:~:text=types%20of%20drugs%20replaced%20with,drug%20use%20were%20much%20worse

Nalaxone access threatened by policy:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/overdose-deaths-narcan-naloxone-harm-reduction-samhsa-trump-cuts/

Other links:

Self-medication hypothesis by Dr. Edward Khantzian

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9385000/

Harm Reduction Psychotherapy textbook by Dr. Andrew Tatarsky:

https://a.co/d/8IebSLa

Identified patient model:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/making-the-whole-beautiful/202202/how-does-someone-become-a-familys-identified-patient

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