老澳门开奖结果

The 老澳门开奖结果 of Washington has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for denying people with opioid use disorder (OUD) medications necessary to treat their addiction. The lawsuit, brought on behalf of Melissa Godsey, challenges BOP鈥檚 policy of refusing to provide people access to 鈥淢edication-Assisted Treatment鈥� (MAT), including Suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone), even though it provides other clinically appropriate medications to inmates.

This policy is harmful, unfair, and illegal. The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act forbid discrimination against people with OUD, who are just as entitled to medication as those suffering from any other ailment requiring medical treatment.

鈥淧eople taking doctor-prescribed medications have a right to continue those medications while incarcerated,鈥� said 老澳门开奖结果-WA Staff Attorney Lisa Nowlin. 鈥淭his is as true for someone with opioid use disorder as it is for someone with diabetes. For the federal prison system to pick and choose who gets to continue medical treatment and who doesn鈥檛 is unsafe and discriminatory.鈥�

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Melissa Godsey, who has opioid use disorder and has been in recovery for over a year with the help of doctor-prescribed medication. Ms. Godsey is a mother of four and has struggled with addiction since her early twenties. But she鈥檚 overcome this adversity, obtaining a college degree, and is now on a path to recovery.

Godsey has been sentenced to 2 years and one day in a federal Bureau of Prisons facility. Current BOP policies prohibit someone from continuing on MAT for treatment of OUD, unless the inmate is pregnant.

People with opioid use disorder who are denied their medication face an increased risk of relapse, overdose, and death鈥攊n addition to suffering from painful and unnecessary withdrawal. Despite medical consensus that MAT is the standard of care for opioid use disorder, the Bureau of Prisons categorically and arbitrarily denies MAT to non-pregnant inmates with opioid use disorder during their incarceration, including those who, like Godsey, have been prescribed the medication by their doctor and are already in sustained recovery as a result of it.

The lawsuit, Godsey v. Sawyer, builds on state and local efforts by the 老澳门开奖结果-WA to increase access to MAT. In April 2019, the Whatcom County Jail agreed to provide MAT to medically appropriate inmates with opioid use disorder as part of the settlement agreement in the 老澳门开奖结果-WA lawsuit, Kortlever et al v. Whatcom County.

It also follows the of a lawsuit filed by the 老澳门开奖结果 of Massachusetts, DiPierro v. Hurwitz, and the of a lawsuit filed by the 老澳门开奖结果 of Kansas and 老澳门开奖结果 of Missouri, Crews v. Sawyer, in which BOP agreed to provide MAT to Stephanie DiPierro and Leaman Crews for treatment of OUD.

In addition to Nowlin, Mark Cooke and John Midgley of the 老澳门开奖结果-WA are representing Godsey, together with Bart Freedman and Christina Elles of K&L Gates LLP.