Expert: courts must treat opioid use disorder as a possible ADA disability

At the New Mexico Courts ADA midyear webinar, Professor Bruce Adelson said opioid use disorder (OUD) often meets the ADA’s definition of disability when it substantially limits major life activities and warned courts and agencies against blanket exclusions of people who are in treatment.

Adelson pointed to recent matters to explain enforcement risk. He described a West Virginia case in which an incarcerated person alleged denial of Suboxone; government defendants settled for more than $130,000, and a separate settlement with the medical provider was confidential. He also summarized a DOJ settlement with the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners and the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program after two bar applicants were required to undergo repeated medical and psychological assessments and long monitoring despite evidence they were fit to practice law; DOJ required the agencies to stop blanket inquiries and not to restrict legally prescribed medications used in treatment.

Adelson emphasized that prescription medications used as part of treatment for OUD (for example, buprenorphine/Suboxone) are not the same as illegal drug use and that employers or licensing bodies must individually evaluate whether a person’s condition and conduct justify restrictions. He flagged Tassinari v. Salvation Army, where a Massachusetts federal court granted class certification in a challenge to recovery-housing policies that prohibit MOUD, as an example that blanket bans on MOUD are vulnerable to challenge.