ADA Rights for People Recovering from Opioid Use Disorder

The ADA protects people with disabilities from discrimination in many situations, such as housing, transportation, and employment to name a few. It protects you from being discriminated against because of your disability from both private businesses, like a restaurant or movie theater, and a government, like a city.

The definition of “disability” under the ADA is very broad.

A person has a disability under the ADA if the person:

• Has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, or
• Has a history of an impairment that substantially limited one or more major life activities, or
• Is thought to have such an impairment.

Your disability has to really limit one or more major life activity. This, too, is a broad category under the ADA. A disability substantially limits a life activity if it is harder for you to perform the activity compared to someone without a disability. Major life activities can include, but are not limited to:

Remember, this is not a complete list, so check with a legal organization if you are not sure if you are protected by the ADA or not.

The ADA protects persons with OUD or in recovery from being discriminated against or treated differently because of their disorder. This includes people who are taking legally-prescribed medication to treat their OUD.

To qualify as a person with disability for OUD under the ADA, a person must fall into at least one of the following categories:

• In treatment or recovery from OUD.
• Taking legally prescribed medicine to treat their OUD.
• In a supervised OUD rehabilitation or drug treatment program.
• Have a history of past OUD but are no longer illegally using drugs.
• Is “regarded as” having OUD, even if they do not in fact have OUD.

However, the ADA does not protect individuals who:

• Are currently taking illegal drugs.
• Are former casual drug users. There must have been addiction involved.

Under the ADA, persons with disabilities cannot be treated differently than individuals without disabilities.

As mentioned above, the ADA is available to protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination. If you are discriminated against because of your past opioid use, there are two options available to protect you:

1. File an administrative complaint.
2. File a lawsuit.

An administrative complaint is the formal process for registering a complaint with a state or federal agency. What agency you will file a complaint with will depend on who discriminated against you. There are specific agencies created to address concerns:

• Employment: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Housing: Housing and Urban Development
• Air travel problems with a specific airline: Department of Transportation

For other complaints, you can file a discrimination complaint with the Department of Justice (DOJ). You can file online or by mail.

• Online form

  Print and mail a form to:
  U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division
  Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
  Washington, D.C. 20530-0001

For more information about this process, you can call the Civil Rights Division at (202) 514-3847, (855) 856-1247 (toll-free), or by Telephone Device for the Deaf: (TTY) (202) 514-0716.

You also have a right to file a private lawsuit under state or federal law. If you want to pursue any discrimination claims you may have, you can seek the services of an attorney. However, even if you cannot afford to hire an attorney, you can still file a lawsuit on your own. Note that each type of discrimination lawsuit may have different requirements, as well as deadlines to file a lawsuit.

Under the ADA, the remedies available will depend on the area of discrimination experienced.

Employment Discrimination

• Back pay
• Reinstatement
• Being given the denied promotion
• Being given the requested reasonable accommodation

Housing

• Being given the requested reasonable accommodation
• Requiring the housing provider to change their policies and practices
• Monetary damages

Publicly Available Areas

• Orders telling the business or entity that they must stop discriminating
• Orders directing the business or entity to make specific facility improvements or changes
• Fines against the business or entity