Finalist: The Huffington Post, by Jason Cherkis

In late 2013, before coverage of the opioid addiction epidemic became a regular feature of the nightly news, before Hillary Clinton called for a new approach to drug treatment, and before the president ad-libbed the word “heroin” in the second paragraph of his State of the Union speech, The Huffington Post's Jason Cherkis flew to Kentucky to investigate why so many Americans were dying of overdoses.

For the next year, Cherkis tracked overdoses in the three Kentucky counties hardest-hit by the opioid crisis. No database of the medical histories of fatal overdose victims existed, so Cherkis created one. He obtained records from the county coroners and compiled files on each case. Health privacy laws and the stigma associated with addiction meant this work required relentless source-building. There were no whistleblowers with thumb drives full of documents. It took time for Cherkis to gain the trust of the more than 100 people he interviewed. They included wardens, treatment operators, probation officials and victims' families, many of whom eventually agreed to hand over documents never before made public.

An unexpected narrative emerged. The first instinct of any politician confronted with the addiction crisis was to call for more access to treatment. But Cherkis showed that a majority of people who died of heroin overdoses had gotten treatment.

The problem was that the standard treatment -- abstinence from any and all drugs, including anti-addiction medicines -- while sometimes useful for alcoholics, didn't work well for opioid addicts.

What did work was Suboxone, a medication that blocks opioid cravings and eases the symptoms of withdrawal. Suboxone was widely used outside the U.S., where fatal heroin overdose rates had plummeted. But instead of embracing what's known as medication-assisted treatment (MAT), the U.S. system overwhelmingly favored abstinence.

Published on January 28, 2015, Cherkis' story set in motion a series of state and federal policy changes. The HuffPost investigation was widely cited as having driven the shift. The signal reform has been the rejection of abstinence and the embrace of medication-assisted treatment.

A week after Cherkis’ story was published, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, known as the drug czar, announced that state drug courts that insisted on strict abstinence would no longer receive federal funds. Slate reported that the czar's decision was “spurred on by a stunning investigation by the Huffington Post.”

In March, the Kentucky legislature passed a bill that was intended to produce a "culture shift" in how the state treats opioid addicts, according to one of its authors, who carried a printout of Cherkis' story in his briefcase. The bill made MAT the official policy of Kentucky. "The new legislation was spurred by the Huffington Post's report," the PBS Newshour's Judy Woodruff reported.

A few months later, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) co-sponsored a bill that called for expanding MAT. Hill staff "said they had been quoting pieces of your work to each other throughout that day," the Kentucky Society of Addiction Medicine's Kelly Clark told Cherkis in an unsolicited note. "I cannot express to you how impactful your work is being."

In Arizona, the famously strict Maricopa County jails began allowing MAT. Michael White, who works in the Arizona system, wrote Cherkis an email crediting the HuffPost story with the change. "I have worked in the field for five years and have seen more movement by system partners and government agencies in the last three months," White wrote.

In September, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said she would rewrite regulation to expand access to MAT. That same month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation barring drug courts from insisting on abstinence. Advocates who worked on the bill said the change was a result of the new federal drug-court policy Cherkis' story had prompted.

In October, President Obama announced a goal of doubling the number of doctors who offer MAT and called for the federal government to identify and then eliminate barriers to its use. In reporting the news, The Guardian cited the HuffPost investigation. The next month, the New England Journal of Medicine cited the HuffPost story in a review article about the opioid addiction epidemic.

"Dying To Be Free" offered readers an immersive experience that included audio and video documentaries and photo and data displays. It was the result of multiple reporting trips, the creation of several databases and maps, and the work of staff across the newsroom. The story's data presentation allowed readers to see the full scope of the crisis, and audio and video documentaries gave them a visceral feel for the stakes. Our audience responded -- millions of people have read HuffPost's coverage of the opioid epidemic, and Cherkis and other HuffPost reporters received hundreds of emails, some of which are included in the supplemental material.

In the months since Cherkis' initial story was published, HuffPost has made covering the opioid addiction crisis an editorial priority. Cherkis and others produced dozens of stories -- some of which are included in the supplemental material -- chronicling the epidemic, its fallout and the government’s response. In November, Cherkis traveled to South Dakota and Colorado for a 5,000-word follow-up to his original piece.

We are proud to submit "Dying to Be Free" for the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. We believe The Huffington Post's coverage of the opioid addiction crisis has overcome serious obstacles to reporting, engaged readers and achieved remarkable results. We hope you will agree.

Sincerely,

The Editors of the Huffington Post