New Jersey – February 24, 2021 – A coalition of 44 New Jersey healthcare, behavioral health, recovery, harm reduction, criminal justice, and social advocacy organizations and leaders called on members of the New Jersey Congressional delegation today to pass the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act.

In a letter to the delegation, these leaders urged New Jersey’s senators and representatives to prioritize the bill in light of historic overdose deaths across the state. In 2020, New Jersey lost more daughters, sons, mothers, and fathers to drug overdoses in some months than at any time in the state’s history.

The Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act is historic, bipartisan legislation that will build universal access to lifesaving treatment for opioid use disorder. The gold standard of care for opioid use disorder is medication that prevents painful withdrawal symptoms like buprenorphine. Buprenorphine is available in generic form. The medication helps secure long-term recovery and cuts the risk of overdose death in half.

New Jersey is recognized as a nationwide leader in expanding access to buprenorphine, which is one the most cost-effective forms of treatment for opioid use disorder. The state has barred insurance companies from requiring prior authorizations for the medication, funded centers of excellence, and authorized all paramedics to provide buprenorphine to people experiencing overdoses.
But despite New Jersey’s commitment to ensuring universal access to buprenorphine, fewer than 4 in 100 doctors, advanced practice registered nurses, and physician assistants across the state are publicly listed as being able to prescribe the medication to patients with opioid use disorder. Under a bureaucratic federal law, medical providers with a controlled medication license can freely prescribe buprenorphine to patients in pain, but to prescribe the same medication to patients with opioid use disorder, they must subject themselves to onerous restrictions that include 8-24 hours of federally mandated training, a 2-3 month registration process with the federal government, and limits on the number of patients they can treat.

The results of this law are tragic: Even though buprenorphine has been FDA-approved for nearly two decades, as few as 1 in 5 Americans with opioid use disorder have received the medication. Women, persons of color, and veterans all lack equal access to buprenorphine due to the structural health disparities caused by the current federal restrictions.

The Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act removes these federal restrictions and allows all medical providers with a standard controlled medication license to prescribe buprenorphine for opioid use disorder just as they prescribe medications for other chronic medical conditions. The bill also launches a national education campaign to connect medical providers to publicly available training resources on best practices for treatment substance use disorder.

“Our laws should encourage participation in treatment, but right now the federal government stands in the way of New Jerseyans accessing treatment. The current federal barriers foster stigma by isolating people with opioid use disorder and the medical providers who care for them,” said Dr. Erin Zerbo, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Rutgers University. “This common-sense reform will help ensure every New Jerseyan with opioid use disorder – regardless of their income or racial and ethnic background – has access to treatment that can help them recover.”

“As a mother of a child with opioid use disorder, I know how hard it is to find affordable, high-quality treatment,” stated Tonia Ahern, a government policy and family advocate with the Mental Health Association in New Jersey. “Every week, I work with New Jersey families who drive hours from their homes to find a medical provider who can prescribe this lifesaving treatment. The time has come for the federal government to remove this senseless red tape that is costing countless lives.”

“Buprenorphine is among the safest and most effective medicines I prescribe as a physician,” said Dr. Aakash Shah, an addiction and emergency medicine physician based in the state. “I see the power of this medication daily in helping individuals stabilize so they can earn a living, spend time with their families, and give back to their communities. I’m proud of New Jersey’s leadership in expanding access to buprenorphine. Congress can follow New Jersey’s example in creating equitable access to this lifesaving treatment.”

To learn more about the Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act, visit www.endsud.org/mat-act