Senators introduce CARA 2.0 to increase access to prevention, treatment, and recovery services

Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) recently introduced the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) 2.0 to increase funding levels for the Comprehensive Addiction & Recovery Act programs that were enacted in 2016. As described in a press release from Senator Portman’s office, CARA 2.0 builds on CARA by increasing the funding authorization levels and laying out new policy reforms to strengthen the federal government’s response to the opioid crisis. For example, CARA 2.0 would authorize $765 million to increase research on opioids, set a three-day limit on initial opioid prescriptions for acute pain, mandate physician education on addiction, establish a pilot program to study the use of mobile methadone clinics in rural areas, remove the limit on the number of patients a physician can treat with buprenorphine and methadone, and re-authorize the pregnant and postpartum women grant program within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).