Running from drugs — an alternative to treatment
Published 11:45 am Friday, January 2, 2026
Drug addiction is bad! No getting around this. CDC stats show over 80,000 drug overdose deaths in US in 2024. Every day we see more people dying on the streets from drugs. Drug addiction is like the bubonic plague in the early years – the Black Death which killed 30-60% of Europe’s population. COVID doesn’t even register as a competing operative for deaths in the US.
Everyone reading this paper knows someone or 10 or 100 people who are addicted, was addicted, or has died of this. Treatment for this is very ineffective; Methadone and Suboxone clinics are a joke. These so called “Medication Assisted Treatment” centers substitute Methadone — an extremely dangerous drug developed by the Nazi’s during WWII — to replace another drug. Substitution works in basketball, not addiction. Besides, these clinics are usually located in large population centers and bring in hundreds of drug addicts (and dealers) to these communities every day.
Counseling works some of the time, but not most of the time. Treatment duration is long, expensive and frequently results in relapse. The U.S. is estimated to spend upwards of $700 Billion annually across the board due to drug addiction. Outpatient treatment centers, counseling, behavioral therapies, Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and other 12-step programs do work sometimes. Those are cheaper, but still not very effective in the long run. So, what we need is an alternative to everything the government has proposed.
I had an idea a decade ago that solved many of the issues listed above. My idea was cheaper and the cost of therapy is maybe $120 every three months. The treatment might be painful in the beginning, resulting in some weight loss but eventually this all goes away. Plus it gives these addicts some meaning to life. It opens up the pores of their brain and allows great creative ideas to flourish, suppressing the ugly mind of the addicted hapless person.
Anybody know what this drug is? Any guesses before reading on? I discovered it actually by accident. Everyone knows I used to be a long distance runner, having run 35 marathons and ultramarathons. During my training and certainly after each marathon I would notice I developed what is referred to as a “runners high.” This is occurs in most runners, cyclists and swimmers who exercise at a sustained aerobic level which causes the release of several chemicals in the brain referred to as a “neurochemical cascade.”
In this chain of events, the primary chemical released during endurance exercising is an endocannabinoid which causes euphoria, reduces anxiety, suppresses pain, causes the runner to feel very relaxed and a sense of well-being. Endorphins are also released which is a natural opioid and creates pleasure and pain control. Dopamine is also a naturally occurring chemical which promotes a feel good, let’s run another marathon. A few other chemicals released include Serotonin and norepinephrine that also aid in a euphoric relaxed state of mind.
This is a “good” high. It gives mental clarity and a calm focus, a sense of rhythm and flow where the marathon miles pass more effortlessly. It does not distort the mind like narcotics do. People who experience a runners high are more efficient in whatever their doing.
Having researched a “runners high” euphoria, I began wondering why this can’t be applied to treating drug addiction. Although I have never tried a narcotic or opioids in the past, I knew these drugs affected the body in a similar fashion as the runners high. Let’s advance this thinking into basic science, specifically studying rats in a psychology laboratory.
I am not a pain specialist, psychologist, or a basic science researcher, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last year and I did take a psychology class during my undergraduate years at the University of Michigan. In addition to this, at the time I was on the board of the American Medical Athletic Association (AMAA) which met annually at the Boston Marathon near the finish line at the Colonnade Hotel. So I decided to deliver my research project to a group of around 100 physicians mostly from Harvard University which was a short distance from this hotel. I was also interested in this study since my orthopedic practice is in eastern Kentucky where drug addiction was and still is rampant. My presentation to the AMAA was on April 14, 2013, the day before the Boston Marathon which was also the year of the bombing. My research of studying the works of other basic science researchers showed that rats would rather exercise on exercising wheels than self-administer cocaine and amphetamines. This was shown by several authors and was consistent in all the studies I reviewed.
This showed that in all phases of drug addiction, aerobic activities using the exercise wheel inhibits the binge and compulsive use of cocaine in rats. It also reduced relapse and reinstatement of cocaine self-administration. This affected both sexes in rats and showed that exercise is likely to be effective both as a preventative and treatment intervention. Exercise also improved mood, sleep, weight loss, higher self-esteem and endurance.
What these studies have shown and what I have experienced myself through endurance training is that running has no negative consequences for those people that can run. It’s cheap ($120 for a pair of running shoes), it can help recovering drug addicts lessen withdrawal by replacing fentanyl and other illicit drugs with the naturally occurring drugs called endorphins. Running is good for the heart and body, and can occur almost anywhere, even in a lake or ocean where swimming can replace running.
Can you see the day when people who are in drug court for past narcotic convictions can go put on a pair of running shoes, run for 30 minutes, then come back and experience a similar “high” as a drug. And all they’re doing is allowing their body’s natural chemicals to act on their brain instead of injecting themselves.
One more point to consider is those people in drug court. They are supposedly not consuming drugs and are routinely being tested for this on an unscheduled basis. Wouldn’t they love to have a safe and legal high instead? Tell them to go run a few miles and in all probability they will come back and feel great, eat a healthy fat juicy steak, and maybe, just maybe, feel like their starting to defeat their devils in addiction. That’s a tradeoff any addict will take.
Lastly, a runner’s high has proven to effective in treating nicotine and alcohol addiction.
Ronald S. Dubin, M.D., is president of the Kentucky Orthopedic Clinic in Middlesboro and Corbin, Kentucky. He can be reached at rdubin256@hotmail.com.
