oin users also abuse other drugs, chiefly including 
cocaine and marijuana. 
(5) Abuse of narcotic pain medications is also 
a serious and increasing problem. According to the 
Drug Abuse Warning Network (‘‘DAWN’’), drug-
abuse-related emergency room visits attributable to 
abuse of narcotic pain medications rose 45 percent 
from 2000 to 2002, and 20 percent over just one 
year from 2001 to 2002. Stemming and preventing 
such prescription medication abuse will require a 
multi-pronged approach, including major educational 
efforts and an increase of substance abuse treatment 
options and capacity. 
(6) The Nation has had a longstanding goal of 
reducing the myriad costs to society of drug addic-
tion, and increasing access to addiction treatment. 
(7) The National Institute on Drug Abuse has 
had a longstanding research and development pro-
gram, designed to increase the availability of viable 
therapeutic interventions for drug addiction. 
(8) The availability of new therapies and new 
methods of providing therapy will both reach new 
populations and increase the amount of treatment 
capacity available.
(9) Congress, recognizing the crucial impor-
tance of expanding drug addiction treatment options 
and capacity, enacted the Drug Addiction Treatment 
Act of 2000 (‘‘DATA law’’) (title XXXV of the Chil-
dren’s Health Act of 2000; Public Law 106–310) to 
allow qualified practitioners to prescribe addiction 
treatment medications from their office settings as 
long as the number of patients to whom the practi-
tioners provide such treatment does not exceed 30 
patients. 
(10) Since enactment of the DATA law, a new 
treatment option already has been approved by the 
Food and Drug Administration and is now available 
for qualified practitioners to prescribe for their pa-
tients, as a direct result of the commitment of Con-
gress and the Federal Government to reduce the so-
cial and personal impact of the illness of drug addic-
tion. 
(11) For practitioners in a group practice, the 
DATA law established a single 30-patient limit for 
the entire group practice, rather than a 30-patient 
limit per practitioner. Qualified and trained practi-
tioners practicing addiction treatment in group prac-
tice settings and academic health centers have real-
ized an unexpected negative impact on their ability
to serve their patients effectively and as anticipated 
by the DATA law, as a result of the law’s patient 
limitation on group practices. 
(12) Neither Congress nor the DATA law in-
tended that the quality of care would be less for pa-
tients receiving care in group practices, which are a 
principal mode of health care delivery in the United 
States. 
(13) The DATA law’s 30-patient limit on group 
practices is having the unintended consequence of 
denying addiction treatment to patients who seek 
and require it, in direct contrast to the overall pur-
pose of such law. 
SEC. 3. MAINTENANCE OR DETOXIFICATION TREATMENT 
WITH CERTAIN NARCOTIC DRUGS; ELIMI-
NATION OF 30-PATIENT LIMIT FOR GROUP 
PRACTICES. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 303(g)(2)(B) of the Con-
trolled Substance Act (21 U.S.C. 823(g)(2)(B)) is amend-
ed by striking clause (iv). 
(b) 
CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—Section 
303(g)(2)(B) of the Controlled Substance Act (21 U.S.C. 
823(g)(2)(B)) is amended in clause (iii) by striking ‘‘In
any case’’ and all that follows through ‘‘the total’’ and 
inserting ‘‘The total’’.
Æ