As a physician and addiction treatment provider I am deeply saddened by J.D.'s heroin overdose and death after being given the drug intravenously by an adult.

At 14, her use of this and other illicit drugs on the day of her overdose is tragic enough, but we are all outraged by the adult who allegedly administered the heroin and may not have sought medical care for her out of fear of criminal consequences. How can anyone be unaffected by this horrific scenario?

Because part of my work involves treating addicts I have reached the point where I cringe whenever I read the news and see an opiate-related crime or death, and I am privately relieved each time I learn that the victim or perpetrator is not someone I have treated. This is the nature of addiction.

This time what I saw was concerning for a new reason: the mention of the prescription drug Suboxone in this context in absence of any "equal time" describing its benefits. I fear that people who have not previously heard of this medicine will forever associate it with the underworld of drug use and diversion of prescription drugs to the streets by its criminal element.

I realize this may not be anyone's intent, but all too often the stories of recovery, the positive outcomes for those who are able to turn their lives around, and the powerful tools that prescription treatments represent go untold. I am partially responsible for that as well; out of concern for patient privacy I also remain silent.

This is the rest of the story: addiction to alcohol and drugs is a serious and chronic brain disease. If it isn't intractable and the person afflicted can stop anytime, then by definition it is abuse rather than addiction. We know that addiction is progressive, chronic, most often relapsing, and defies all rational attempts to overcome it. It kills people -- both the addicts themselves and people who get too close. Allowed to run its course it costs us all way, way too much.

With treatment and lifelong embrace of recovery-related action people do recover. Chances are that everyone reading this knows more than one person in recovery from addiction, but they may not realize it.

That's because addicts in recovery rejoin society as productive members, partners, parents, friends, artists, professionals, and human beings fully engaged in all manner of endeavors. Healing can happen, abstinence can be maintained, and people who recover live meaningful and purposeful lives.

But because of our prejudices about this disease, many people who have recovered from this affliction keep their stories secret.

In brief, Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone) is not an intoxicant when used as prescribed. It is used in opiate addicts to arrest the endless cycle of searching for drugs, using drugs, and going into withdrawal. It reduces craving -- a phenomenon that is relentless in opiate addicts. Patients remain on this medication while working at rebuilding their lives for variable lengths of time, generally for as long as it is helpful. People who take Suboxone look, act and feel normal. Their emotions are not blunted, they are not "high," just less distracted by their physical demand for opiates.

Occasionally people acquire this drug under false pretenses and then sell or give it away to illicit users. Even those in active addiction usually use it to keep from having severe withdrawal rather than to get high.

Many people have found the support they needed to recover in part due to the use of Suboxone, though it is never sufficient by itself to bring about recovery. So its illicit use during a medical emergency by people high on heroin and other drugs should not be the sum total anyone knows about medication that is very helpful for opiate addicts.

If you are reading this and are addicted to opiates, get help now. It only gets worse. If not, take a moment to be thankful that this chronic disease is not a part of your life.