FEDERAL NON-DISCRIMINATION LAWS PROTECT PEOPLE IN MAT
It is illegal to discriminate against people because they are in MAT.
Federal civil rights laws protect qualified “individuals with disabilities” from discrimination in many areas of life. People in recovery from drug addiction – including those in MAT – generally are protected from discrimination by the following statues:
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Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
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Rehabilitation Act of 1973
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Fair Housing Act (FHA)
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Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
Many States and cities also have non-discrimination laws that protect individuals with disabilities – including those in MAT. This brochure does not discuss these laws, but information regarding them is typically available from the State and city agencies enforcing them.
WHO IS PROTECTED?
The non-discrimination laws mentioned above protect individuals with a “disability.” Most often, people in MAT are considered individuals with a “disability.”
Why? Under these Federal laws, an individual with a “disability” is someone who –
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Has a current “physical or mental impairment” that “substantially limits” one or more of that person’s “major life activities,” such as caring for one’s self, working, etc., or
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Has a record of such a substantially limiting impairment, or
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Is regarded as having such an impairment.
Addiction to opioids is an impairment that can and does, for many people, substantially limit a major life activity. For this reason, many courts have found that people in MAT have a record of an impairment. The same analysis
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applies to buprenorphine. Many people also regard people in MAT as having a substantially limiting impairment.
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HOW DO THESE PROTECTIONS WORK?
Discrimination means treating someone less favorably than someone else because he or she has a disability, once had a disability, or is regarded – even erroneously – as having a disability. MAT treats a chronic disease – addiction – using legally-prescribed medications. It is discrimination for employers, landlords, government agencies, and health care and treatment providers to 7
treat people less favorably because they are in MAT. It is also discrimination to treat people in MAT differently than people who are prescribed medication to treat other disabilities, such as people prescribed insulin for diabetes or people with high cholesterol who are prescribed cholesterol-lowering medication.
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Child Welfare System. May judges, prosecuting attorneys, and others in the child welfare system require parents to end their participation in MAT in order to get their children back or to keep their children?
No. Courts and other government agencies may not single out people in MAT and require them to stop taking legally prescribed medications. Such a requirement would be no different than telling an insulin-dependent, diabetic parent that she may not have her children back unless she stops taking insulin and addresses her diabetes through nutrition and exercise alone. Courts may, however, require people in MAT to comply with treatment requirements.
Probation and Parole. May a probation or parole officer or court require individuals to end their participation in MAT as a condition of their compliance with parole or probation?
No. As in the child welfare system, probationers and parolees in MAT may not be singled out for different treatment solely because of their participation in MAT.
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