ACLU Statement on DOJ Memo Threatening the Right to Community Living for People with Disabilities

The ACLU is suing the state of West Virginia for its moratorium on clinics providing methadone, an opioid treatment that cuts the risk of overdose deaths in half.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – West Virginia’s largest overdose prevention group filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the state’s nearly two-decade-old moratorium on new methadone clinics. In the lawsuit, which was filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, Solutions Oriented Addiction Response of West Virginia (SOAR-WV) asserts the moratorium violates Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. SOAR-WV is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Kaplan & Grady. “Methadone is an evidence-based medication backed by 50 years of research that cuts the risk of fatal overdose by 50 percent and is particularly important given the ubiquity of fentanyl in the drug supply,” ACLU-WV Legal Director Aubrey Sparks said. “West Virginia should not be discriminating against people in recovery by arbitrarily denying them this lifesaving medicine, now more than ever.” Since 2008, at least 11,983 people have died of an opioid overdose in West Virginia, the equivalent of the combined populations of Pendleton and Calhoun counties. The rise of fentanyl in recent years has made the issue of methadone access even more important. The moratorium has resulted in only nine clinics operating in the state, leaving broad swaths of the population more than an hour’s drive from the nearest methadone clinic. Methadone treatment programs often require daily in-person check-ins, making it practically impossible for thousands of West Virginians to get the treatment they need while juggling the demands of life, said Sarah Stone, who co-directs SOAR-WV along with Joe Solomon. Stone explained that methadone is vitally important because it is the only medication for opioid use disorder that fully activates the opioid receptors in the brain. “For that reason, it allows people who are using powerful opioids like fentanyl to begin recovery treatment without first going through painful and dangerous withdrawal symptoms that increase the risk of relapse and death,” she said. ACLU Staff Attorney Joseph Longley explained that people who are seeking health services in connection with drug rehabilitation are considered people with disabilities under federal law. “One purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act is to ensure people are able to receive the care they need, without the social stigma that often accompanies addiction. The government should not be getting in the way of lifesaving care.” In addition to the moratorium, the lawsuit challenges the state’s zoning restriction that bars new methadone clinics from operating within a half-mile of any daycare center or school – a sweeping ban that does not apply to other types of health care facilities. “For nearly two decades, West Virginia has severely restricted access to methadone, a lifesaving treatment for opioid use disorder. In a state leading the nation in overdose deaths, that policy is deadly — and unlawful under the Americans with Disabilities Act,” said David Howard Sinkman of Kaplan & Grady.

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