Incarcerated people in the state’s custody are a step closer to being able to receive a medication for opioid use disorder. That’s because of a recent settlement in federal court.
The settlement will require the state to provide access to the prescription medication to people already taking it before entering prison.
Buprenorphine has wide support in the medical community: the World Health Organization lists it as an essential medicine, and several studies show that it lowers the risk in overdose deaths for people with opioid use disorder.
But it’s not currently available through the New Mexico Corrections Department. Attorney Ryan Villa worked with the New Mexico American Civil Liberties Union and Disability Rights New Mexico to challenge that.
“We filed this lawsuit to force them to do it and comply with not only federal law – the Americans with Disabilities Act – but state law,” he said.
Without it, people in NMCD custody with opioid use disorder are forced to withdraw, which is not only painful but can be harmful – even fatal.
The state legislature passed a law last year to make this treatment gradually more available to people who are incarcerated by the state.
The first required step was for the Human Services Department to create rules for a treatment program by last December. It missed that deadline. A pilot program where people who already have a prescription would have access to the drug was slated to follow.
“When a prisoner comes to the prison with diabetes, they give them their insulin. When a prisoner comes to the prison needing heart medication they can give them their heart medication,” Villa said. “There's no reason they can't give them this medication.”
The law doesn’t require that NMCD provide full access to the drug to people with a prescription until the end of 2025. By mid-2026, it mandates that NMCD offer the treatment to anyone who needs it, whether or not they had a previous prescription.
NMCD said in a statement that it has worked collaboratively with federal and state departments to provide medication for opioid use disorder for several years and will ensure expansion of it before the end of 2025.
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