Opioid Policy Research Collaborative

Perspectives

Hearing from People with Opioid Use Disorder 

Pharmacy-Based Methadone project logoWe interviewed people with lived experience of opioid use disorder treatment to understand what they want in a pharmacy-based methadone model. Following the COBRE Principles for Community Empowering Research we conducted two in-person community advisory board meetings with people in early and long-term recovery from opioid use disorder.

 Broadly, these interviews allowed us to identify important advantages, disadvantages, barriers and facilitators to pharmacy-based methadone, which we detail in a peer-reviewed publication available here. The interviews also identified key assumptions for the business models including:

 

 

 

Pharmacy staff anti-stigma training 

 

 

 

 

A need for a private space if observed dosing is required

 

 

 

 

Urine toxicology testing not taking place at the pharmacy

 

 

 

Overall, the people with lived experience we spoke with were very supportive of pharmacy-based methadone models, especially models that did not perpetuate restrictive OTP practices.