[ad_1]
A Mbadachusetts prison must provide methadone to a man recovering from opioid addiction, a federal judge in Boston has ordered.
US District Judge Denise Casper, in a preliminary ruling on Monday, said Geoffrey Pesce, 32, would probably take him to his civil trial against the Esbad County Correctional Home in Middleton. .
The Ipswich man faces jail for violating his probation and driving with a suspended license. He argues in his lawsuit that the prison's policy of denying some drugs to drug addicts to inmates violates the Eighth Amendment and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Pesce argues that prison policy goes against his doctor's recommendations regarding the treatment of his opioid addiction. It would also make him cope with the pain and discomfort of drug withdrawal since methadone is an opioid, he argues.
Pesce has been taking methadone daily since 2016. He claims that he has not been able to stay sober with other addiction medications such as buprenorphine or naltrexone.
The Sheriff's County Department of Esbad did not immediately comment.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in September in the name of Pesce. The civil rights organization has brought similar lawsuits in Maine and Washington State.
Most correctional facilities in the state do not administer methadone, but more and more prisons and prisons across the country are starting to provide them to inmates.
Mbadachusetts lawmakers have asked six county jails this year to start offering more opioid addiction drugs by next September.
Esbad County was not one of them, but the prison offers inmates an injection of naltrexone, an addiction medicine, shortly before their release. This medicine usually lasts one month.
[ad_2]
Source link
