Bill would make opioid recovery houses accountable

A bill by two Ohio lawmakers would allegedly target the opioid crisis in the Buckeye State by reforming the recovery residence system in the state if the bill passes the state Senate and is signed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

State Reps. Justin Pizzulli, R-Scioto County, and Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, said that while most addiction recovery houses are helping the communities negatively affected by the drug, there are too many bad actors who are abusing the system, which results in Ohioans suffering, according to NBC 4.

“This community, because we were the first in the nation to battle with the opioid epidemic, we’re now first in the nation to see what actors are in the space of recovery housing,” Pizzulli said, according to the news source. “It reminds us a lot of the original opioid epidemic, in a way, some of the Wild West-type mentality of this industry, because it really is a new industry.”

House Bill 58, which passed the state House unanimously on Feb. 25, had its second hearing before the Senate Addiction and Community Revitalization Committee last week.

If the state Senate passes the bill and DeWine signs it, the Department of Behavioral Health would be required to administer a certification program for all recovery houses in Ohio, according to NBC 4.

As of right now, the state government accepts accreditation for addiction recovery houses from Ohio Recovery Housing and Oxford House, Inc., but Pizzulli and Jarrells said they think the state government should be directly responsible for ensuring the recovery houses are not overcrowded and for maintaining health and safety standards, the news source reported.

“The state has never actually developed the standards of what we want to see ourselves,” Pizzuli said. “There’s no other version of healthcare where we do it that way.”

Additionally, the bill would also create a recovery housing task force and allow local prosecutors and county Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health boards to provide oversight and investigate complaints of poor treatment practices.

“When you do have a bad actor in current law, the time it takes to cite a bad, bad actor and ultimately close a bad actor could be months, if not years, just because of the natural nature of bureaucracy,” Jarrells said.

Jarrells told the Columbus station that local authorities should “have some stake in addressing these bad actors and getting them offline as quickly as possible.”

“The truth is every day that we wait while a person is living in rat- and roach-infested homes is a day that someone literally could, their recovery journey ends,” Jarrells said, according to NBC 4.

The lawmakers said that holding the residences responsible for their actions and holding them to higher standards would result in people struggling with addiction being more likely to recover, according to the news source.

“There are bad actors in every industry,” Pizzulli said. “But this industry is so important because it helps people get back on track, take control of their lives.”

Jarrells also said that housing is “incredibly important and probably is likely the number one thing besides employment to help someone stabilize their recovery journey.”

Scioto County Sheriff David Thoroughman testified during the March 18, 2025, hearing, expressing his support of the bill and saying that he knows first-hand how opioid addiction affected his community because he’s been working in law enforcement for “almost 36 years” and was “on the drug task force in the early 90’s when the unfettered prescribing of pain medications reached its peak.”

He also said that while “recovery housing was meant to be part of the solution,” the wrongdoers are exploiting “recovery housing for profit, failing those in need and burdening our communities with unchecked, unregulated facilities.”

“House Bill 58 is needed to help stop those wrongdoers and to help those in need of recovery and the surrounding community,” he said during his testimony. “I urge you to support House Bill 58—a measure that will protect our citizens, safeguard our communities, and ensure that every dollar, including Medicaid dollars, is spent wisely.”