Narcan and counseling available for addicted inmates
Funded by a federal grant, officials in St. Louis are providing addicted inmates with information and Narcan as they leave prison.
As reported by WTVA, most of the money goes for treatment, but there’s also prevention money, including money to get Narcan into the hands of people in the criminal justice system.
One of the people in St. Louis area who will administer this is Chad Sabora, with the Missouri Network Outreach Center.
“Whether or not people think it’s a choice or not, I think we are way beyond that argument,” Sabora said. “People are dying and we have a way to save them. And there’s treatment options for them.”
Sabora is now visiting inmates and letting them know they can get free Narcan, which sometimes goes by the generic name Naloxone.
“These are kids that are dying. We’re losing an entire generation,” Sabora said. “So, in my opinion, we have to do everything we can to save them, even if it was less cost effective, but actually this modality saves tax dollars.”
Not only does he believe it’s cheaper to treat and prevent addiction than to pay the costs associated with someone dying, but he also believes it saves money by helping addicts become productive again.
“I’m in recovery,” he said. “I shot heroin for 17 years. The only crime I committed was putting a drug in my body that I wasn’t supposed to. We’re not all criminals. We’re not all bad people, but again, the ones that are committing crimes – it’s not them.”
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To read more about Chad Sabora’s work with the Missouri Network Outreach Center, please visit WTVA.com.