State Commission on Narcotic Treatment Programs; Abolishment

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  6. State Commission on Narcotic Treatment Programs; Abolishment

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  1. There is created the State Commission on Narcotic Treatment Programs to be composed of three members of the House of Representatives to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives; three members of the Senate to be appointed by the President of the Senate; five members to be appointed by the Governor to include the commissioner of community health or his or her designee, the commissioner of behavioral health and developmental disabilities or his or her designee, and three members who represent a cross section of interests of narcotic treatment program owners, pharmacists, and law enforcement.The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate shall each select a cochairperson.The cochairpersons shall call all meetings of the commission.Administrative support for the commission shall be provided by the staff of the Department of Community Health, as appropriate.
  2. The legislative members of the commission shall be entitled to receive the compensation and allowances provided for in Code Section 28-1-8.Members of the commission who are state officials, other than legislative members, or state employees shall receive no compensation for their services on the commission but may be reimbursed for expenses incurred by them in the performance of their duties as members of the commission in the same manner as they are reimbursed for expenses in their capacities as state officials or employees. Members of the commission who are not legislators, state officials, or state employees shall receive a daily expense allowance in an amount the same as that specified in subsection (b) of Code Section 45-7-21, as well as the mileage or transportation allowance authorized for state employees, and the funds for payment thereof shall come from funds of the Department of Community Health.
  3. The commission may conduct such meetings at such places and at such times as it may deem necessary or convenient to enable it to exercise fully and effectively its powers, perform its duties, and accomplish the objectives and purposes of this Code section.
  4. The commission shall perform the following by December 31, 2016:
    1. Examine the current narcotic treatment program licensure requirements for adequacy;
    2. Assess how the current licensure requirements and enforcement of such requirements meet the purpose of providing adequate medical, counseling, vocational, educational, mental health assessment, and social services to patients enrolled in these programs and how these programs can be assessed for meeting the narcotic treatment program goal of the individual achieving recovery;
    3. Determine if the geographic service areas are reasonable and based on an optimal balance between population density and service proximity and whether the sociodemographic in the service area and the projected population to receive services are being considered;
    4. Determine the cause and effect of hospital admittance for overdose and incidents of suicide, if any, in relation to the adequate licensure and oversight of these programs;
    5. Determine what legislative changes need to be made to licensure requirements of narcotic treatment programs or any other changes to the law to address concerns that arise out of this study; and
    6. Solicit expert testimony on the efficacy of nonnarcotic, medically assisted treatments for narcotic dependence.
  5. A temporary moratorium on the acceptance of new applications for licensure of narcotic treatment programs authorized under this article through June 30, 2017, would provide the General Assembly with time to study the need for any changes to the licensure requirements for the operation of such programs and the enactment of any other additional laws to ensure the safety of Georgia's citizens.New applications for licensure of narcotic treatment programs in this state shall be temporarily suspended starting from June 1, 2016, through and including June 30, 2017, in order to permit the commission to complete its report and recommendations and to permit the General Assembly to act on those recommendations during the 2017 legislative session.
  6. Between June 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017, the department shall not accept any new applications for licensure of narcotic treatment programs.
  7. The temporary suspension of new applications for licensure of narcotic treatment programs shall not affect applications pending on June 1, 2016, program renewals, program name changes, program location changes, or program ownership changes.
  8. The commission shall stand abolished on January 1, 2017.

(Code 1981, §26-5-21, enacted by Ga. L. 2016, p. 157, § 2/SB 402; Ga. L. 2017, p. 307, § 2/SB 88.)

Code Commission notes.

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2016, "June 1, 2016" was substituted for "the effective date of this Code section" in subsections (e) through (g).

Editor's notes.

- Ga. L. 2016, p. 157, § 1/SB 402, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that: "With respect to the licensure of narcotic treatment programs in this state, the General Assembly finds that:

"(1) There is a vital need for narcotic treatment programs that provide adequate medical, counseling, vocational, educational, mental health assessment, and social services to patients enrolled in the narcotic treatment program with the goal of the individual achieving recovery;

"(2) There is a growing concern as to the numbers and concentration of narcotic treatment programs located in certain parts of this state and that concentration of such narcotic treatment programs is in cities along Georgia's borders with neighboring states;

"(3) There are reported and documented increases in heroin addiction and overdoses throughout this state;

"(4) There is a grave concern over the public's well-being concerning the potential abuses of methadone and its relationship to geographic proximity, the population being served, and whether patients are receiving adequate treatment;

"(5) Georgia is eighth in population but third nationally in the number of narcotic treatment programs; and

"(6) There is a need to study the narcotic treatment program licensure requirements and enforcement and other issues that may arise out of this study."

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Proposed clinic lacked standing to challenge restrictions.

- LLC that had made preliminary plans to operate a methadone clinic lacked standing to challenge O.C.G.A. §§ 26-5-21 and26-5-46, laws restricting licensure of narcotic treatment facilities, in part because the restrictions had expired and in part because the LLC had no concrete plan in place for bringing the LLC's proposed clinic into operation; the LLC's claims of lost profits and additional expenses were speculative. Aaron Private Clinic Mgmt. LLC v. Berry, 912 F.3d 1330 (11th Cir. 2019).


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