email article Lawmakers on Wednesday discussed ways to remove barriers to accessing treatment for substance use disorder during a hearing of the Health Subcommittee for the Committee on Energy and Commerce. From eliminating the training requirements for buprenorphine prescribing, to take-home doses of methadone, there was no shortage of ideas, albeit controversial ones. The subcommittee also examined the "two-track" response to dealing with opioids that seems to diverge based on race and ZIP code. Subcommittee Chair Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) explained that the need to resolve access and equity issues could not be more urgent, noting that overdose deaths spiked after the start of the pandemic, and culminated in over 88,000 deaths in the 12 months leading up to August 2020 -- making last year "the deadliest year for overdoses on record."