Fewer than half U.S. jails provide medications for opioid use disorder: study

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Fewer than half of 1,028 jails surveyed across the United States offered any form of medication for opioid use disorder, according to a new study published on Tuesday.

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, looked into addiction treatment availability in the U.S. criminal justice system. It found that two-thirds of people who are incarcerated in U.S. jails are 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, said the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), which supported the study.

The most common reason jails cited for not offering medications for opioid use disorder was lack of adequate licensed staff, according to NIH.

"Offering substance use disorder treatment in justice settings helps to break the debilitating -- and often fatal -- cycle of addiction and incarceration," said Nora D. Volkow, director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"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," Volkow said.