Many Jails Do Not Offer Any Form of Medication for Opioid Use Disorder: Study

Fewer than half of more than 900 jails surveyed across the U.S. offer any form of medication for opioid use disorder, and just 12.8% made these available to anyone with the disorder, according to a new study.

With two-thirds of people who are incarcerated in U.S. jails experiencing a substance use disorder – in many cases, an opioid use disorder – the failure to make these medications widely available in criminal justice settings represents a significant missed opportunity to provide life-saving treatments in an environment where people in need of care can be easily reached, the researchers said.

Lack of adequate licensed staff was the reason most often given by jails as to why they were not offering the medications to every individual who needed them, HealthDay reports.

“Offering substance use disorder treatment in justice settings helps to break the debilitating — and often fatal — cycle of addiction and incarceration,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the research, said in a news release. “Though someone may be in jail for only a short time, connecting them to addiction treatment while they are there is critical to reduce risk of relapse and overdose, and to help them achieve long-term recovery.”