Discrimination, Addicted and Recovering Individuals

People seeking help with their addiction or in long-term recovery routinely and consistently encounter public and private policies and laws that make it hard for them to get treatment and recovery support services, jobs, housing, and medical care and to exercise their civic rights. These discriminatory policies and laws are different from attitudes held by people that may or may not stigmatize people with addiction, because laws and polices can be changed and enforced. Discriminatory laws affect the ability of individuals to sustain their recovery, thus affecting clinical treatment outcomes as well as perpetuating addiction, family violence, school dropout rates, crime, injuries, and the spread of HIV and other infectious diseases.

According to the Institute of Medicine, the effects of stigma extend beyond the attitudes and practices of individual members of the public, patients, and clinicians and influence public policy. Discriminatory laws and policies that result from stigma may involve an individual in a position of authority denying employment or housing to an individual who is in recovery. More structurally embedded discrimination can also occur, as when treatment facilities are kept out of certain neighborhoods because of "not in my backyard" pressures and zoning laws.

In 2001, in the first-ever survey of the recovery community for Faces & Voices of Recovery, Peter D. Hart and Associates found that one quarter of people in recovery reported they had been denied a job or promotion or had trouble getting insurance. For people in recovery with criminal records, the legal barriers that they face can be even more daunting. Many leave the criminal justice system still struggling with their addiction, and others in recovery have criminal histories—as a result of their activities while they were still using—that keep them from jobs, housing, and families that would help them get their lives back on track. They often find that they face discrimination for their addiction and criminal justice histories.