Drug Abuse Program in Salem Jail Helping Inmates

SALEM, Va. - July 17, 2018 - PRLog -- The Western Virginia Regional Jail in Salem, Virginia has started running a drug abuse program that will help prisoners suffering from substance use disorders.

On July 1, the Western Virginia Regional Jail — which helps the counties of Franklin, Montgomery and Roanoke — starting using a naltrexone addiction treatment program to help the inmates keep opioid and alcohol withdrawals at bay for about a month.

Researchers at Duke University and Thomas Jefferson University ran a study on opioids and alcohol and how they often go hand in hand also featuring what naltrexone could do to limit the withdrawals. There were 174 people who partook in the study and 140 of them reported having an alcohol addiction with an opioid use disorder.

The naltrexone shot, under the brand name Vivitrol, costs $1,100. The  Western Virginia Regional Jail is providing funding for this drug abuse program with $67,000 of their own finances and a $200,000 grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services.

The grant allows up to $204,538 to the jails that meet the application requirements of the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program (RSAT) for Prisoners Program.

RSAT enables medication assisted treatment (MAT) services in local and regional jails and assists in helping the prisoner population.

https://www.drugaddictionnow.com/2018/07/17/drug-abuse-pr...