PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A federal judge has ordered a Maine jail to provide medication-assisted treatment to an inmate who contends it’s necessary to keep her opioid use disorder in remission.
The judge granted a preliminary injunction requiring the Aroostook County Jail to provide physician-prescribed buprenorphine to Brenda Smith.
The Madawaska resident contends the drug, sold under the name Suboxone, alleviates painful withdrawal symptoms and reduces the possibility of a relapse.
The ACLU of Maine, which sued on Smith’s behalf, called the judge’s Wednesday ruling “a breakthrough in the fight against the opioid crisis.”
The ruling comes at a time when jails and prisons across the country are starting to provide addiction medications to inmates, as resistance from long skeptical corrections officials appears to be loosening amid the national drug epidemic.
