Addiction and the Americans with Disabilities Act

On July 26, 1990, the U.S. Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was intended as a broad, national, civil rights-oriented mandate "for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities," both physical and mental. ADA protection is extended, in limited form, to those with addiction disorders. However, many addicted individuals are denied ADA protection because of exclusionary criteria in the ADA itself and because of increasingly restrictive interpretations of the ADA in recent cases. The benefit to the addicted persons, and to the larger society, is lost when unfair discriminatory practices preclude employment of otherwise qualified, though stigmatized, individuals. The ADA currently falls short, in many respects, of preventing such discrimination against those with addictions.