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| Nurse: Medication for Meth Addicts Leaving Prison Not Enough |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/20/2006 |
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June Lehr says she's had to "rattle a few cages" with North Dakota prison and health officials in her effort to get more medication for methamphetamine addicts recently released from the state penitentiary. Lehr, a nurse at a homeless shelter in Bismarck, said former prisoners have been given as little as three days worth of antidepressant drugs to help them overcome their meth addictions once they are set free. The former prisoners then often have to buy their own prescriptions, which can cost as much as $150 for a month's supply. "By doing this we're really setting them up to fail," said Lehr, who works at the Ruth Meiers Hospitality House. She said it is easier for the former inmates to return to their old ways and buy meth on the street than to get prescription drugs. Leann Bertsch, the state corrections director, said each prisoner is evaluated before he or she is released. "We customize a plan for each offender," she said. A medical appointment is made for those who need it, and enough medication is given to the former inmate until that day, usually within a month, Bertsch said. "We're not just turning them out and saying, "Go for it,'" said Jim Maurer, who heads the prison's treatment department. "We try to make sure they get treatment in prison, then to a transitional setting or halfway house." About half of the inmates at the state prison have been meth users, Bertsch said. Maurer said meth-addicted inmates at the penitentiary are put in treatment programs that sometimes involve prescribing antidepressant drugs. There is no medicine to cure meth dependence, health officials say. Antidepressant medications often are used to blunt cravings and curb the depressive symptoms of withdrawal. Researchers say buproprion, also known as Wellbutrin or Zyban, has been shown to help some meth addicts. "What works for one addict doesn't work for another," said Julie Sagen, a certified addiction registered nurse at Prairie St. John's Hospital in Fargo. "It's hit and miss." She said buproprion "so far is somewhat promising, but nothing seems to be doing a whole lot." Maggie Anderson, medical director for the state Department of Human Services, said drug companies donate some antidepressant drugs that can be used for meth addicts. But she said the drugs are becoming more scarce. "Everybody's getting tight," she said. "They're not as generous with samples as they have been in the past." Human Services has a prescription budget of $150,000 that is shared among the department's eight human service centers, agency spokeswoman Heather Steffl said. Tim Sauter, director of the West Central Human Service Center in Bismarck, said his agency has prescribed the medication in an emergency. "We try and scramble to get them the help they need," he said. Jan Foushee, a spokeswoman for the Social Security Administration in Denver, said inmates with a meth addiction don't necessarily qualify for benefits. "If they have a qualifying disability, it doesn't matter what caused it," she said. "But drug addiction itself is not a disability." The earliest someone could get benefits from the agency is three months, she said. Sagen said prescribing antidepressant drugs to former inmates for only a short time is useless. "It doesn't even give them a chance," she said. "It's a lot easier for them to commit another crime and go back to prison for treatment." Meth users probably are addicts for life, Sagen said. "They are like cucumbers who become pickles," she said. "Pickles can't go back and be a cucumber again." |
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