Awesome news !!!
-How many of you are scared of losing your jobs?
-How many of you are scared of losing custody of your children because you are on methadone or Suboxone?
-how many of you afraid that your bosses will find out that you have substance use problems and fire you?
The Department of Justice just reminded all of the states that patients who are currently in treatment for substance use disorders are protected under the ADA (American disabilities act). Basically what this means for you is that no one can fire you for being in treatment or even having the disease called addiction/substance use disorder. (now do not get me wrong, there are rules and regulations like you cannot be a pilot of a 747 or drive a school bus full of kids okay? But basically all other jobs are fine.) patients with substance use disorder are now under the same protection as patients with any other disability including wheelchair or otherwise. how great is that? This is really a game changer.
Removing and eliminating discriminatory barriers for people to get into treatment is so important. how else can we get patients into treatment if they are constantly worried about losing their lifelines.
here is my commitment to you. If anyone feels they are discriminated against I will help you file a complaint directly with the Department of Justice and of course you can always go online here and file it yourself.
https://www.ada.gov/filing_complaint.htm
Stay alive
Andreas J. Edrich MD FASAM ADM MRO “the addiction doc”