ASAM Provides Recommendations for the Nation’s 2024 Drug Control Strategy in Letter to ONDCP

On March 29th, ASAM provided recommendations for the 2024 biennial national drug control strategy in a letter to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). ASAM suggested the ONDCP include in the 2024 strategy, actions that call for the decoupling criminal penalties and personal drug use possession, implemented as part of a carefully designed set of public health and legal reforms that include strategic, social investments to strengthen American communities and improve lives. In addition, ASAM requested that the ONDCP include its support for, in the 2024 strategy, Congressional passage of the Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act, as well as Congressional action to repeal of Medicaid’s inmate exclusion policy and to close Medicare substance use disorder (SUD) coverage gaps, including for residential SUD services that align with evidence-based program standards for SUD care, such as those found in The ASAM Criteria.