I applaud the Carroll County commissioners who voted down providing Medication Assisted Treatment to those jail inmates not already in a MAT program. Just because the "standard of care” (as Jerry Knirk stated in his Oct. 11 column) is treating one opiate with another synthetic one, sometimes we have to dig deeper into the issue.
Beth Dyer's lengthy comments regarding MAT programs boil down to, "Just say no." Qualified addiction specialists disagree. Too many uninformed people still want to punish addicts- even if their only crime is drug use. Unless we start treating addiction as an illness, we will continue to have desperate addicts committing crimes to get drugs. Supervised addiction programs- including Methadone treatment- can be effective in keeping addicts from committing violent crimes to score drugs. We need to be pragmatic in our approach. Affordable, legalized, controlled drugs may well be key to reducing the horrific costs of addiction-related violence in our communities.
Interesting perspective Beth but I am not quite sure where you are getting your information from.
“People released from jail or prison are at increased risk of death, especially in the first four weeks after leaving incarceration. The prime driver is drug overdose, including opioid overdose death. While opioid agonist therapy — buprenorphine or methadone — has been shown to substantially reduce death rates from opioid overdose in the general population, these treatments are rarely available in jail or prison settings. But they could have a big impact. A British study found that prison-based opioid agonist therapy was associated with a 75% reduction in death in the first four weeks after release. In Rhode Island the post-release overdose death rate dropped 61% within a year after the state implemented an MAT-in-corrections program (offering buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone).”
Yes Indivior was sued but it was because they were trying to keep generic Suboxone out of the market.
In 2010 the UK changed its drug policy from MAT to abstinence based and as a direct result death rates from overdoses skyrocketed.
I know many, many people who have had their lives restored and given back to them because of Suboxone.
I am one of them.
No medication is perfect but Suboxone saves lives.
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Beth Dyer's lengthy comments regarding MAT programs boil down to, "Just say no." Qualified addiction specialists disagree. Too many uninformed people still want to punish addicts- even if their only crime is drug use. Unless we start treating addiction as an illness, we will continue to have desperate addicts committing crimes to get drugs. Supervised addiction programs- including Methadone treatment- can be effective in keeping addicts from committing violent crimes to score drugs. We need to be pragmatic in our approach. Affordable, legalized, controlled drugs may well be key to reducing the horrific costs of addiction-related violence in our communities.
Interesting perspective Beth but I am not quite sure where you are getting your information from.
“People released from jail or prison are at increased risk of death, especially in the first four weeks after leaving incarceration. The prime driver is drug overdose, including opioid overdose death. While opioid agonist therapy — buprenorphine or methadone — has been shown to substantially reduce death rates from opioid overdose in the general population, these treatments are rarely available in jail or prison settings. But they could have a big impact. A British study found that prison-based opioid agonist therapy was associated with a 75% reduction in death in the first four weeks after release. In Rhode Island the post-release overdose death rate dropped 61% within a year after the state implemented an MAT-in-corrections program (offering buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone).”
Yes Indivior was sued but it was because they were trying to keep generic Suboxone out of the market.
In 2010 the UK changed its drug policy from MAT to abstinence based and as a direct result death rates from overdoses skyrocketed.
I know many, many people who have had their lives restored and given back to them because of Suboxone.
I am one of them.
No medication is perfect but Suboxone saves lives.
You can’t treat the dead.
Kind regards,
Mark
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Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.