Federal cuts put addiction treatment and recovery at risk

May 18, 2025

Opinion; By Cassandra Boness

This opinion piece was originally published in the Albuquerque Journal: https://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/article_f8969951-a8ae-4d66-ad6c-3cb881ffef0a.html

The article reads, "I vividly remember growing up and my grandmother warning me to be careful with alcohol — because addiction “runs in our family.” She wasn’t wrong. For generations, both sides of my family struggled with harmful alcohol use. As a child, I witnessed heavy drinking, explosive fights and relatives joking that I was being raised “street smart” by being around their substance use. No one in my family has ever received formal treatment and this continues to impact current generations.

These experiences shaped much of my life. I have dealt with the lasting impacts throughout most of my adult life, including facing my own problems with alcohol use.

With determination to change the narrative for other families like mine, I went on to study addiction for over a decade. I pursued a career as an addiction scientist while raising three young kids, driven by the motivation to ensure people had access to the help my family never did.

Because of the tireless work of researchers, clinicians, peers and advocates, we now have effective, evidence-based treatments for addiction. We know what works and that recovery is possible. But this progress is under direct threat from the Trump administration. I am deeply concerned about what this means for the millions of Americans impacted by addiction, across the country and right here in New Mexico.

In New Mexico specifically, we have seen a decline in overdose deaths by 8% since peaking in 2021. These reductions have been largely attributed to critical public health interventions like access to and use of naloxone, or Narcan, a medication that can rapidly reduce overdoses.

This progress has been made possible through the federal funding provided by organizations such as the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

But recent funding cuts and policy rollbacks are dismantling this infrastructure. Since January, NIH has faced drastic personnel and budget cuts, the CDC’s Alcohol Program has been decimated, and SAMHSA may cease to exist altogether under the proposed Health and Human Services reorganization. The very systems designed to support families and sustain research funding for addiction are unraveling in real time. As a result, families will be devastated, and people will die.

The return on investment for research is clear: for every dollar of funding provided by the National Institute of Health approximately $2.46 of economic activity is generated. In New Mexico specifically, NIH funding supports over 1,400 jobs and generates more than $289 million in economic activity. This infrastructure provides personnel and financial support for addiction prevention and treatment and is ultimately what helps to save lives and keep families whole. This is especially important in New Mexico, where we lead the nation in heavy drinking and alcohol-related deaths.

Because I love New Mexico and believe people with substance use disorders deserve access to treatment, it has been impossible for me to sit back idly. I have been calling my representatives as well as speaking with friends, neighbors and colleagues, and urging them to share their stories as well as join collective efforts such as signing statements of concern in defense of addiction science. Although almost everyone I have spoken with has been touched by addiction in some way, many were not aware of the recent threats to addiction services and research.

At a time when the U.S. is facing a serious substance use and overdose crisis, we cannot afford to lose ground. We owe it to every person struggling with substance use, and their families, to act now to save the very infrastructure that saves families from unnecessary suffering. The cost of inaction is far too high. It is time to get loud about our own personal stories with addiction and let them drive us to action."

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Cassandra Boness is a psychologist and addiction researcher studying how to improve substance use treatment services at the University of New Mexico. She is a member of the Addiction Science Defense Network Coordinating Committee.