Links to full VAAP Position Statements: 

• Barrier Crimes
  

• Recovery Capital
  

• Recovery Residences

• Kratom

• Parity

  • Parity supporting document

Summaries:

Barrier Crimes: VAAP supports reform of Virginia’s barrier crimes laws, which permanently exclude many qualified individuals — including those with lived recovery experience — from working in behavioral health and addiction treatment settings. While intended to protect public safety, the current framework is overly broad, inconsistently applied, and imposes lifetime employment bans for many offenses without meaningful opportunity for individualized review. VAAP calls for expanding screening eligibility, eliminating lifetime prohibitions, establishing clear and fair screening standards, and focusing restrictions on serious offenses only. These reforms are critical to addressing workforce shortages, advancing recovery equity, and ensuring that individuals who have demonstrated rehabilitation can contribute meaningfully to Virginia’s recovery system.

Recovery Capital: VAAP affirms that investing in recovery capital, such as housing, employment, relationships, and purpose, not only improves individual outcomes but also strengthens families, communities, and systems. The organization calls for policies that build, not undermine, these critical supports.

Recovery Residences: VAAP supports consistent and accountable certification standards for recovery residences across Virginia. The organization urges DBHDS to adopt stronger incident reporting, inspection protocols, and public transparency to ensure safe, ethical environments for individuals in recovery.

Kratom Regulation: VAAP supports commonsense regulation of kratom in Virginia to protect public health while preserving adult access. The organization calls for stronger safeguards, including prohibitions on youth-oriented marketing, clear age restrictions with meaningful penalties, limits on highly potent formulations, and transparent labeling and testing standards. These reforms aim to reduce risks of dependency and harm, particularly among young people, while ensuring accountability in a largely unregulated market.

Behavioral Health Parity: VAAP supports stronger enforcement of behavioral health parity laws to ensure equitable access to mental health and substance use disorder treatment. The organization advocates for closing loopholes that allow disparities in reimbursement, provider networks, and clinical decision-making, and supports the Virginia Parity Amendment Act of 2026. VAAP calls for clearer standards, meaningful penalties for non-compliance, and improved network adequacy so behavioral health care is treated on par with physical health care.

Barrier Crimes Under Judicial Review

Implications of Brown v. Smith for Virginia’s Recovery Workforce

A recent federal court ruling in Brown v. Smith has major implications for individuals in recovery who are seeking to work in behavioral health and addiction treatment settings. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found that Virginia’s current “barrier crime” ban, which permanently excludes some individuals from employment in direct-care roles, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14^Th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution when applied to substance abuse counselor, Melissa Brown.

Brown, a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor (CSAC) in Virginia with years of education, recovery, and professional experience, was barred from direct-care employment due to her robbery conviction over twenty years ago. The Court held that her lifetime ban was arbitrary and inconsistent — particularly when other individuals with comparable offenses are eligible for individualized screening.

This decision does not eliminate Virginia’s barrier-crime scheme, but it does require Virginia to apply barrier crimes employment restrictions more equitably and fairly. 

This case highlights the need for thoughtful reform that supports individuals in recovery, public safety, as well as workforce development — especially as Virginia continues to face shortages of qualified behavioral-health professionals.

Smith has appealed this decision to the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Read the case summary HERE.