Bill Turning CA From Most Restrictive Methadone State to Most Accessible Signed by Governor Newsom

SACRAMENTO, CA - Assemblymember Matt Haney’s (D-San Francisco) AB 2115 has been signed by Governor Newsom. The bill will radically change California's strategy on the treatment of opioid addiction by transforming California from a state with the most restrictive methadone laws in the country, into one of the most accessible. The bill ensures that people with opioid addiction are able to access this lifesaving treatment by removing outdated laws that were first crafted during the Vietnam War.

Methadone is a highly effective medication that eases the debilitating symptoms of opioid withdrawal for people who have quit drugs like heroin and fentanyl. Unfortunately, the state’s many bureaucratic barriers to methadone treatment have left medical professionals hobbled in their fight against the spreading fentanyl crisis, leading to a sharp increase in opioid overdoses since 2019.

“We’ve reached a point where the treatment for opioid addiction is much harder to get than the deadly drugs themselves,” said Haney. “Dealers are much better at getting fentanyl and heroin into people’s hands than we are at getting them addiction medication. We have to reverse that entirely if we want to save people’s lives.”

Currently the state’s stringent regulations far surpass federal guidelines, and require patients to jump through numerous hurdles to access methadone including requiring patients to line up in front of specialized methadone clinics every morning to receive treatment. Drug dealers, aware that people with addiction gather together every morning, often prey on these vulnerable former users as they wait in line.

AB 2115 represents a significant shift in how opioid addiction is treated in California by aligning California’s law with updated federal guidelines set by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, making California one of the most accessible states for methadone treatment access.

AB 2115 expands methadone access in the State by:

1. For the first time allowing doctors to prescribe their patients up to 72-hours worth of take-home doses of methadone. Previously only a methadone clinic could prescribe methadone.
2. Increasing the amount of methadone a patient can take home from a clinic, allowing them to avoid lining up for methadone in front of clinics on a daily basis.
3. Allowing for expedited entry into a treatment program, by allowing non-methadone clinic doctors to perform federally required physical exams of the patient, as well as allowing patients to decline non-drug related blood testing and lab work.
4. Remove the requirement that a patient have at least one year of recorded opioid usage before receiving treatment.
5. Remove the requirement that the patient participate in frequent counseling services.
6. Allow the patient to be absent from treatment for up to 30 days before being removed from a program.
7. Allow physicians greater discretion to determine the appropriate dosage of methadone to administer for a patient.

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