It's Magic?: Ozempic, Addiction Treatment, and the Law

The world may finally have a cure for drug addiction: Ozempic. That drug, popularly used for weight loss treatment, has spawned miracles for many patients. Their cravings for alcohol, opioids, nicotine and other addictive substances have disappeared along with their waistlines. But the legal system might not be ready to handle Ozempic.

Some laws and policies discourage medication-assisted addiction treatment, especially in drug court systems. Drug court participants often face pressure to achieve sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs, rather than with medical assistance. Legal scholars and harm reduction advocates probably go too far in the other direction. That is, they often reject abstinence and instead advocate treating alcoholism with alcohol, opioids with opioids, and so on.

This Article first examines the burgeoning evidence that Ozempic can do what no other medical treatment has ever been able to do: eliminate an addict’s fundamental desire to escape reality through psychoactive substances. Given the strength of this evidence, the Article assumes that Ozempic will become a proven addictive treatment. It then explains the challenges that Ozempic may face from either sobriety advocates or harm reductionists. It argues for changes to laws and policies that would help Ozempic overcome those challenges.