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Methadone clinics can now offer more take-home doses. Will they?

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D anielle Russell is, as she says, a “poster child” for methadone. For more than a decade, the medication — one of the most effective treatments for opioid addiction — has helped her move past the heroin she used to use. She finished a series of degrees, and is now a Ph.D. student in justice studies at Arizona State University. As life-changing as methadone is, the catch is that taking the tightly regulated medication requires reporting to a special clinic nearly every day to get one’s dose. When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived, that changed. In an effort to reduce contact among people at clinics, federal health officials said that providers could give up to 14 days of take-home doses to patients broadly, and up to 28 days to “stable” patients — patients, Russell thought, like her. advertisement Russell, who had been going to her Phoenix clinic six days a week prior to Covid, did get an increase in her take-home allowance, but nowhere near 28 days. Instead, the clinic allowed her to come

D anielle Russell is, as she says, a “poster child” for methadone. For more than a decade, the medication — one of the most effective treatments for opioid addiction — has helped her move past the heroin she used to use. She finished a series of degrees, and is now a Ph.D. student in justice studies at Arizona State University. As life-changing as methadone is, the catch is that taking the tightly regulated medication requires reporting to a special clinic nearly every day to get one’s dose. When the Covid-19 pandemic arrived, that changed. In an effort to reduce contact among people at clinic

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