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Suboxone: Why Government is Frustrating

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NPR’s Planet Money team tells the story of Suboxone, an anti-addiction drug that the government subsidized then regulated to the point that it is almost impossible for addicts to access.  To attain the anti-drug, addicts are left turning to… their drug dealers. 

Here is a description of the story: 

There’s a pill called Suboxone that treats addiction to heroin and pain pills like oxycontin. Doctors and addicts say it’s amazing.

“It was the best thing that ever happened,” one heroin addict told us. “I was like OH. MY. LORD. This is a miracle pill.”

The government spent tens of millions of dollars developing Suboxone. Doctors can prescribe it in their offices. But a lot of people who want it can’t get it from a doctor, so they have to buy it on the street.

Today on the show: Why people have to turn to drug dealers to get a pill that fights addiction.

“In Guantanamo, Have We Created Something We Can’t Close?”

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“In Guantanamo, Have We Created Something We Can’t Close?”

That was the title of a recent story on NPR’s All Things Considered.  Here is how the story began: 

The crisis at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp keeps growing in size and intensity. According to the military’s own count, 100 of the 166 men held in the prison there are now on hunger strike, and the 27 most in danger of dying are being force-fed.

Last month, guards had to forcibly subdue a camp where even the most cooperative detainees are held.

The hunger strike was triggered by a February search of inmates’ Qurans, though the details are hotly disputed. What’s remarkable, however, is that everyone — including detainees, lawyers and the military — agrees that the real reason for the unrest is simply the frustration that the camp has stayed open so long.

“America Doesn’t Need A Strong Dollar Policy

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“America Doesn’t Need A Strong Dollar Policy

That was the proposition debated on NPR’s Intelligence Squared, whose website  describes the debate as follows: 

It’s often taken for granted that America needs a strong dollar.  When the value of the U.S. dollar is strong relative to other currencies, it becomes attractive to investors and allows Americans to buy foreign goods and services cheaply.  But in times of recession, are we better off with a weak dollar that stimulates U.S. manufacturing by making our goods cheaper and more competitive?  Or will the loss of purchasing power and currency manipulation abroad, offset the potential gains?

The debaters included Fredric Miskin (Columbia Business School) and John Taylor (Chairman and Founder, FX Concepts) arguing in favor of the motion and Steve Forbes(Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Forbes Media) and James Grant (Editor and Founder, Grant’s Interest Rate Observer). 

Lollipops, Politics, and Economics: It’s Complicated

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Lollipops, Politics, and Economics: It’s Complicated

NPR’s Planet Money recently ran a story titled “The Lollipop War.” The story illustrates why regulating economic policy can be difficult.

Sugar costs more in the U.S. than in the rest of the world. If you’re in the candy business — if, say, you make 10 million lollipops a day — that’s a big deal.

On today’s show, we visit a candy factory in Ohio (where they want U.S. sugar to be cheaper) and a sugar-beet field in Minnesota (where they don’t). And, perhaps inevitably, we hear from Washington, where the fight over sugar has been playing out for years.