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Increase Access to Addiction Services

Long wait lists, unaffordable rates, and a shortage of providers are just some barriers to treatment. The Drug Policy Alliance is advocating for increased access to effective addiction services. 

“ My son Tyler sought addiction treatment over a dozen times, but there was always a wait—sometimes no beds. Once while waiting for a bed, he overdosed in the lobby and still had to wait days for treatment.”

Susan Ousterman

mother who lost her son to overdose

A man speaking with a therapist.
Solutions

To Increase Access to Addiction Services:

  • Ensure adequate funding for addiction services.

    This includes psychotherapy, medications, long-stay treatment, and recovery centers, providing personalized and evidence-based support, reducing overdose risk, and improving a chance at recovery.

  • Make treatment immediately available and affordable.

    Addiction treatment should be available on-demand and readily accessible to anyone who needs and wants it. It should be free or low-cost. Recovery is possible when treatment is accessible.

  • Expand access to addiction medications.

    Medications like methadone and buprenorphine promote recovery and save lives by reducing opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms, while cutting overdose risk in half. They should be widely available, including in jails and prisons.

  • Prevent criminalization from taking over addiction services. Jails are not health facilities. Health decisions should be made by the individual and a qualified health provider, not law enforcement.
  • Address health and social service needs beyond substance use. Remove barriers to life-sustaining resources, like SNAP (food) benefits, and provide affordable housing and healthcare, livable wages, and other services people need to survive and thrive.

People struggling with addiction need options.

Friends sitting in a park, one supporting the other.
A woman holds a sign reading "Support People Who Use Drugs, Don't Punish."

Addiction services is an umbrella term that acknowledges that people need a variety of options to fit their unique circumstances. This can range from treatments like medications or psychotherapy to harm reduction services to sobering centers.

People seeking help with drug use often face more obstacles than support.

There aren’t enough addiction services, like treatment providers or beds, to meet demand. This leads to long travel times or waits—risking overdose or relapse in the meantime. Treatment is often unaffordable, even with insurance. Providers may have strict hours, restrictions, or other limitations that make access difficult. Too often, the treatment that is available is not evidence-based or effective.

Every 31 seconds, someone is arrested for a drug offense, while individuals seeking drug treatment face weeks- or months-long waitlists. The conversation should center around making treatment readily available and easier to access, not around forcing people into treatment through the criminal legal system.

Addiction services are underfunded and scarce.

Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) can reduce overdose risk in half but are hard to access due to strict regulations. Due to stigma, doctors may not even prescribe these lifesaving medications when they can.

Harm reduction services, mobile outreach teams, and overdose prevention centers can help keep people alive and off the streets. They often serve as an entry point to further treatment and care but are vastly underfunded or blocked by politicians.

Help people overcome addiction by increasing access to addiction services.

Fund evidence-based addiction services to support people where they are, including harm reduction and recovery services. Treatment and services must be available, affordable, and accessible on-demand. Expand access to addiction medications like methadone and buprenorphine and provide basic needs like food and housing for people to survive and be stable enough to find success in treatment.

The Drug Policy Alliance is committed to working with elected leaders to remove barriers and increase access to addiction services.

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