# Multimedia 

Multimedia 

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- [Podcasts](/podcasts)
- [Cato Video](/multimedia/cato-video)
- [Video Series](/search/category/video-series)
- [Events](/multimedia/events)

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Apple Podcasts 

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Spotify 

](https://open.spotify.com/show/4dHRhKEljj8zcLdl3Gvsv7) 

Cato Podcast • May 5, 2026 

# Rethinking How America Treats Opioid Addiction 

People call methadone a life sentence, a ball and chain. Cato’s Jeffrey Singer talks with Helen Redmond, author of *Liquid Handcuffs*, about how a Nixon-era crime control program became America’s dominant addiction treatment model, and why it needs to be abolished.

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

[![jeff-singer-cropped.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2024-05/jeff-singer-cropped.jpg?itok=G_0nEnx7)](/people/jeffrey-singer) 

##### [Jeffrey A. Singer](/people/jeffrey-singer)

Senior Fellow, Cato Institute

[ 

](https://x.com/dr4liberty) [ 

](mailto:jsinger@cato.org) 

![Helen Redmond](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2023-08/helen-redmond.jpeg?itok=L-1FL9S7) 

##### Helen Redmond, MSW, LCSW 

Senior Editor, *Filter*, Multimedia Journalist and Filmmaker, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Social Work at New York University Silver School of Social Work

[ 

](https://twitter.com/aftariak)