The following is a statement from the Massachusetts Medical
Society regarding the amicus brief submitted to the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in the case of Commonwealth v. Julie
Eldred:
“By submitting this amicus brief, the Massachusetts Medical
Society urges the Court to take an evidence-based approach to its treatment of
individuals living with opioid use disorder. There is a clear scientific
consensus throughout the medical community that opioid use disorder is a
chronic condition, and that relapse is a symptom of that disorder.
“As a common – almost inevitable – feature of opioid use
disorder, relapse should not be characterized or treated as an individual
choice or failing and should not be the basis of incarceration. Indeed, most
patients experience several recurrences before achieving complete abstinence,
and a person can remain at increased risk of relapse for many years.
“Because of this, the requirement that the defendant ‘remain
drug free’ in order to avoid incarceration is clinically unrealistic – and in
fact, evidence suggests that such a requirement could actually aggravate a
relapse as a response to stress. A more-appropriate response to the defendant’s
medical status would have been treatment of her opioid use disorder using an
evidence-based approach, including medication-assisted treatment.
“Punishing individuals on the basis of relapse, a symptom of
opioid use disorder – rather than for specific activities committed while
suffering a relapse – undermines both individual and public health and wrongly
condemns patients for living with a chronic disease.
“To be clear, the Massachusetts
Medical Society does not condone the commission of a crime. With the filing of
the amicus brief, we are asking the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court to recognize that taking a punitive approach to relapse is not
in the best interests of the people of Massachusetts, all of whom deserve
empathetic, evidence-based approaches to care.”
The amicus brief can be found here.
