SUD Federation
Tuesday, June 5
Hello SUD Fed members,
The SUD Fed Policy Committee prepared the following response to the HOPE Act. We have also attached the latest draft of the bill which is yet to be introduced, although legislators and the AG have held several press conferences. Remember that the Controlled Substances System Reporting Act of 2005 set out the purpose of the CSRS:
"...to improve the State's ability to identify controlled substance abusers or misusers and refer them for treatment, and to identify and stop diversion of prescription drugs in an efficient and cost-effective manner that will not impede the appropriate medical utilization of licit controlled substances.”
We do not believe the provisions within the HOPE Act fit squarely within that purpose. We encourage you, if you are able, to share this statement with your legislators. Thank you.
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It is unfortunate that the general assembly chose to couch $10M in life-saving addiction treatment and recovery support funding in a bill also including provisions that promote government overreach into the privacy of patients and potentially threaten the civil liberties of North Carolinians. The bill's characterization of people with substance use disorders as 'abusers' reinforces the very stigma that makes treatment and recovery more difficult to access. The HOPE Act represents a backwards culture shift away from treating substance use disorder as a disease and toward criminalizing illness.
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NC Substance Use Disorder Federation
