Current regulations on methadone dispensing are holding back effective treatment, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
The society, along with the National Community Pharmacists Association and other interest groups, penned a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and acting Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Derek Maltz March 26. In the letter, the groups argued that strict regulations on where methadone can be prescribed should be eliminated as part of the work of the Department of Government Efficiency.
In February, President Trump issued an executive order directing DOGE and agency leads to eliminate regulations “based on anything other than the best reading of the underlying statute.”
“The current regulation’s ban on prescribing methadone for the treatment of opioid use
disorder not only misinterprets the plain language of the underlying statute but also creates an unnecessarily burdensome bureaucracy that harms Americans by restricting patient choices and limiting the autonomy of qualified practitioners in addiction medicine,” the groups wrote.
Methadone, an opioid, can be used to treat opioid use disorder. Under current regulations, patients can only receive methadone from a designated opioid treatment program.
The letter also argued that allowing primary care and behavioral health providers to prescribe methadone, and allowing pharmacies to dispense these prescriptions, would increase access to treatment. Around 4 in 5 U.S. counties do not have an opioid treatment program, according to the groups, and private equity firms have an “outsized presence” in these programs, “which may have negative implications for market dynamics, such as pricing and patient care.”
“Continuing to separate OUD treatment with methadone from other medical care has not only created significant access barriers to this lifesaving medication for Americans with OUD, but it is not supported by the plain meaning of the underlying statute,” the groups wrote.
Read the full letter here.
