Pharmacies can give methadone for opioid drug dependence treatment.
S. 4941 — Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act 2.0 of 2026 · Filed by Ed Markey (D-MA) · 8 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill lets doctors and psychiatrists prescribe methadone through regular pharmacies. Before treatment, patients must agree in writing. Doctors can prescribe by computer system. States can ask the Attorney General to stop the program in their state.
Who it affects
People with opioid drug dependence can get methadone at local pharmacies. Pharmacies, doctors, and psychiatrists are part of the new system.
One thing to notice
States can opt out, so access to methadone may differ between states. Some states may allow it while others do not.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
8 cosponsors: 6 Democrats, 1 Independents, 1 Republicans.
- Jun 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
5 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 5 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $199,462 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 2 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 78% of bills with any report.
Ed Markey, who sponsored the bill, received $584,610 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness — $69,462 in 1 report
- Massachusetts Medical Society — $50,000 in 1 report
- American Society of Addiction Medicine — $40,000 in 1 report
- American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence — $20,000 in 1 report
- Pinnacle Treatment Centers — $20,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- methadone — A medicine that helps people stop using opioids by reducing cravings.
- opioid drug dependence — A condition where a person depends on opioid drugs and has trouble stopping.
- psychiatrists — Doctors who treat mental health and drug use problems.
- opt out — To choose not to participate in a program or rule.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 9, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-23.
“Pharmacies can give methadone for opioid drug dependence treatment.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4941/simple Report an error