WASHINGTON — When it comes to fighting opioid addiction, there’s no tool more effective than methadone. Doctors have been prescribing the drug since the 1960s, and patients who use it are far less likely to experience an overdose.
But for decades, an archaic web of federal regulations has kept the medication out of reach for countless Americans. Physicians aren’t allowed to prescribe the drug directly to patients. Pharmacies aren’t allowed to dispense it. Patients who want methadone are often required to show up at a designated facility every day — sometimes at the crack of dawn — just to receive a single dose.
Now, amid a worsening addiction crisis, experts are urging the government to eliminate many of the restrictions surrounding methadone use. Keeping the current rules in place, they argue, probably costs thousands of lives each year.
“There’s momentum — there’s a lot of interest in expanding access to methadone via responsible dispensing,” said Regina LaBelle, a drug policy expert at Georgetown University and the former acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. “Sometimes, it’s been so restricted it’s almost seen as a punishment.”
