The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that it had filed a complaint and proposed a settlement of its first Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) discrimination claim involving an employee with “opioid use disorder” (OUD).
The employee was allegedly discriminated against by his employer, a sheriff’s department in Tennessee.
“Opioid use disorder is the chronic use of opioids that causes clinically significant distress or impairment,” according to the National Institute of Health. “Opioid use disorders affect over 16 million people worldwide, over 2.1 million in the United States, and there are over 120,000 deaths worldwide annually attributed to opioids.”
The DOJ said in a press release Wednesday the Cumberland County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Department agreed to end “discrimination” based on OUD after it “failed to make reasonable accommodations to permit” a correctional officer’s employment while taking prescribed medication for OUD….