RFK Jr lauds Italy's addiction treatment. Can it work here?
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NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2026
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has his own story of addiction and credits Alcoholics Anonymous with keeping him sober. But Secretary Kennedy has said that a treatment program in Italy that has shown great success in keeping people sober should serve as the vision for what addiction treatment could be here in the US. On this episode of The Sunday Story, WBUR’s Deborah Becker travels to Italy to see firsthand how a treatment program at an Italian vineyard has created so many success stories.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Aisha Roscoe and this is a Sunday story where we go beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story. |
| 0:07.4 | It's estimated about 50 million people in the United States struggle with an addiction to drugs or alcohol. |
| 0:15.6 | Most never get treatment of those who do about half relapse in the first year. |
| 0:22.7 | But in Italy, there's an addiction treatment program that appears to be having huge success |
| 0:28.6 | at getting and keeping people sober. |
| 0:31.9 | The program has a big fan in the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. |
| 0:38.1 | I've seen this beautiful model that they have in Italy called San Patrick Gnano where they're |
| 0:43.1 | it's good, and that's what we need to build here. |
| 0:48.6 | San Patrignano is one of the largest addiction treatment facilities in the world. |
| 0:54.3 | Recently, Deborah Becker, a senior correspondent at WBUR, went to see how it works. |
| 1:02.0 | Well, I've arrived here at San Patrrrino in Italy. |
| 1:06.2 | I'm surrounded by rolling farmland, vineyards, olive trees, mountains. |
| 1:12.0 | It's beautiful. |
| 1:13.5 | And I'm going to what looks like a college campus. |
| 1:16.5 | There's a large terracotta colored building surrounded by black iron fencing. |
| 1:22.1 | I'm here at the main entrance, and I'm going for a tour. |
| 1:28.6 | When we come back, a visit to a different style of drug treatment. |
| 1:41.8 | We're back with the Sunday's story talking about the quest for a drug treatment program that actually works. |
| 1:48.9 | I'm joined by Deborah Becker from WBUR in Boston. |
| 1:53.2 | Hi, Deb. |
| 1:54.2 | Hello. |
| 1:55.5 | So, Deb, you've been covering the business of drug treatment in the U.S. for years, but you traveled all the way to Italy for this story. So what makes San Patragnano different? |
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