Entering into a relationship of any kind with a recovering addict requires a leap of faith. There is much at risk, including disappointment and a feeling of betrayal if and when the addict relapses.

Doctors in the Spokane area have an opportunity to help recovering prescription pill addicts through the administration of a drug called Suboxone. It offers hope to pill addicts, lessening the symptoms of withdrawal in the same way methadone helps heroin addicts ease out of their addiction. To prescribe Suboxone, physicians must take an eight-hour course required by federal law.

As Spokesman-Review health reporter Carla K. Johnson reported Tuesday, no Spokane doctors have taken the course. So some recovering addicts here are driving to Moses Lake, Ephrata, Yakima, Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and Sandpoint, where doctors are prescribing Suboxone.

Why haven’t doctors here stepped forward? Some speculate that the word has not gotten out to doctors who might be interested. Or the hassle of taking at eight-hour class, even though it is available online, is too much to fit into a hectic schedule. Or perhaps no doctor wants to be associated with a clientele of addicts who are struggling out of addiction.

But this reluctance, whatever the reasons behind it, won’t make the problem go away. Prescription pill addiction crosses all socioeconomic lines; even conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh succumbed. And some of the addictions begin in hardworking women and men who are prescribed pain pills because of work or recreational injuries. The injuries heal, but the psychological and physical dependency continues.

Prescription pill addiction, especially to painkillers such as OxyContin and hydrocodone, is on the rise. Emergency room visits due to prescription painkiller abuse rose 153 percent from 1995 to 2002, according to the federal government’s Drug Abuse Warning Network.

When these addictions remain ignored and untreated, every piece of the health care system suffers, from emergency room budgets to individual premiums that increase to meet the demand placed upon medical plans.

This is a community problem. And Spokane is a community that has hitched its future on providing health care to a geographically diverse population. The area, with top-notch medical centers and highly skilled doctors, has become a magnet for the entire region. Health care excellence means covering the wide range of needs present in that community.

Prescription drug addiction recovery is one of those pressing needs now. Suboxone is just one more tool in the recovery process and yet it is not available in Spokane.

We call upon physicians in the medical arena to research the issue to decide if they are willing to take the risk and take the course, thereby helping relieve individuals, and their families, from the terrible burden of addiction.