Prescribed Drugs and Legal Referral Episode 9
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Hello, welcome to Ask About the ADA, the podcast where we answer your questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how it applies to your everyday life. I'm Joe Zesski, the program manager of the Northeast ADA Center. And on today's edition of Ask About the ADA, we're going to answer two questions that we've received through our technical assistance line. And I hope you'll find it interesting and informative.
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Our first question comes from an individual who has a disability. Their question says, "I'm currently taking Suboxone for my opioid use disorder. This is prescribed as part of my treatment program. Can a potential employer refuse to hire me because of my current medication?"
The first thing to realize is that the ADA recognizes that addiction can be a form of disability, as it has the potential to significantly impair one or more major life activities. So someone who is in treatment for an addiction, like to opioids, can be considered to have a disability. If the person is not currently using illegal drugs or abusing the prescribed medication that they have for a condition, then that prescribed medication-- in this case, the Suboxone-- for the treatment program cannot be considered as a reason to not hire an individual with a disability.
In other words, an employer could not refuse to hire someone because they were taking Suboxone as part of their treatment program, assuming that the individual is following their prescribed regiment. It's important to note that opioid use disorder not only comes up in an employment context but also comes up in access to other programs, including medical programs.
Let's go to our next question. "Do the ADA centers make referrals to attorneys?" This is a question that we often get asking for referrals or suggestions for attorneys to deal with different complaints that individuals want to make. Any of the ADA centers, like the Northeast ADA Center, in particular, cannot recommend individual specific attorneys to people who contact us.
We, first of all, don't have the capacity to compile a list that would be comprehensive and effective to meet the needs of individuals. However, we are also prevented and cannot endorse any individual attorneys because of how we're funded. We are funded through a federal grant, through the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, and that poses certain ethics and requirements on us that we have to meet. And part of that includes not being able to endorse specific legal counselors.
That often said, we do and can refer people to some general legal resources, such as the Legal Aid Society in a state or perhaps the Protection and Advocacy of a given state. However, we just can't recommend specific attorneys. And so there are those avenues that we can suggest. And we can also always refer people to the appropriate federal agency to file complaints as well.
That's it for today's edition of Ask About the ADA. I hope you have found it helpful and useful. If you have any questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how it might apply to your situation, feel free to contact us. You can look for us on social media @NortheastADA, or, of course, you can visit our website NortheastADA.org.
Thank you, as always, to Will Warren, our student producer, and thank you as well to Peter Quinn of the Yang Tan Institute for doing polishing and editing on this podcast and for making this possible. And thank you all for listening and being a part of the conversation.
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