Using buprenorphine for outpatient opioid detoxification

The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000 (DATA 2000) was established to create a new paradigm for medication-assisted treatment of persons with opiate addiction in the United States. Before enactment of DATA 2000, the use of opioid medications to treat patients with opioid addiction was permissible only in federally approved treatment programs, ie, "methadone clinics." The only medications permitted were Schedule II drugs (eg, methadone hydrochloride and l-alpha-acetylmethadol [LAAM]), which could only be dispensed, not prescribed. Under provisions of DATA 2000, qualified physicians in a medical office and other appropriate settings outside the opioid treatment program system may prescribe and/or dispense Schedule III, IV, and V opioid medications for treating persons with opioid addiction if such medications have been specifically approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for that indication. Opioid addiction treatment programs were commonly known as methadone clinics. Such programs now may also dispense buprenorphine hydrochloride and the buprenorphine hydrochloride-naloxone combination.