🔥 From the Frontlines --> This Is Urgent 🔥

Have you ever watched the tender light of hope be extinguished?

I have - at the pharmacy counter.

Working in substance use treatment, I see this every day: people living with HIV who want recovery, but can’t access naltrexone; a medication that could help them stabilize, stay engaged in care, and survive.

The people I work with are carrying so much; HIV, trauma from violence or sexual assault, serious mental health challenges, unstable housing, and constant barriers to getting back on their feet. And still, they choose to try. They walk into treatment, they open up, they say yes to help.

I’ve sat with people as they finally feel a sense of hope hearing that there’s a medication that can quiet cravings and give them a real chance; only for that hope to collapse when they’re told ADAP won’t cover it and they have to pay out of pocket.

It’s devastating. It’s infuriating. And for people who have already been told “no” by so many systems, it’s one more door slammed shut.

The stakes are deadly:
⚠️ People living with HIV are 74% more likely to overdose than HIV-negative peers
⚠️ In NYC, people living with HIV are overdosing at twice the rate

We have the solution. Naltrexone (oral or injectable) is evidence-based:
✔️ Reduces relapse and cravings
✔️ Improves adherence to HIV treatment
✔️ Supports viral suppression and better health outcomes

💊 Cost:
Oral naltrexone: ~$30–$100/month
Extended-release (Vivitrol): ~$1,200–$1,500/month

And yet - ADAP doesn’t cover it. This is a preventable gap. This is about equity. This is about lives.

📢 Now is the moment to act.

Share this. Amplify this. Get this in front of decision makers.

No one should die because they couldn’t access treatment that exists.