The Case for Expanded Methadone Access

Featuring

[Moderator] Jessica Shortall, Safer From Harm Coalition Manager, R Street Institute

Bridget Dooling, JD, Assistant Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University

David Frank, PhD, Research Scientist, New York University School of Global Public Health

Jordan Nahas-Vigon, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University

Overview

Methadone is one of the most effective forms of treatment for opioid use disorder, cutting overdose risk in half and proving more successful in long-term recovery than abstinence-only approaches. Unfortunately, access to this medicine is uniquely restricted in the United States.  

Currently, methadone can only be dispensed through an opioid treatment program (OTP), an onsite clinic that patients must travel to as frequently as six days a week. However, as of 2019, 77.5 million Americans lived in a county with no OTP. During the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions were eased so that more patients were eligible to receive “take-homes”—a few days’ or weeks’ worth of medication they could take home without having to access an OTP. That national experiment offers insights into the potential of expanded access to methadone.

This panel will convene experts and people with lived experience with methadone to discuss the current state of access and its impacts, policy proposals to expand access, and the potential risks and rewards of increased access.