The national policy outlook on opioid use disorder focuses on expanding methadone access, providing leniency on telehealth prescriptions, and exploring new strategies in harm reduction.

According to a STAT News article, overdose fatalities across the country are over 100,000 deaths in 2023, while addiction medicine and federal drug policy has seen little change.  Additionally drugs like fentanyl and xylazine have become more common alongside increased use of more commonly known opioids like methamphetamine and cocaine. The report highlighted what policy and regulation changes around methadone, harm reduction, and telehealth could mean for the opioid crisis and substance abuse treatment.

Despite strong rhetoric from President Biden and lawmakers on Capitol Hill about tackling the opioid epidemic, Washington didn’t pass any major reforms to the addiction treatment system. Not much changed at the local level, either, though money is finally flowing to communities from the multiple opioid settlements that were recently finalized between drug manufacturers, drug distributors, and pharmacies in the wake of overprescribing scandals in the early 2000s.

As previously covered on the Conduit Street blog, Maryland received the first round of opioid settlement funds late in 2022, and despite a delay those funds began filtering through to the counties in May. Jurisdictions like Cecil have been praised for their efforts in putting these funds to work, but federal policies can hamper or enhance these efforts, particularly around methadone access.