“Our treatment system is both underdeveloped and not easy to access or understand,” said Robert Valuck, a clinical pharmacy professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus. Arrests for drug charges have been on the rise in the last five years, according to an analysis of state data. So, too, have the number of people sent to prison for possession and selling of drugs that include heroin and methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant. Their odds of recovery would be much higher, Valuck argues, if people addicted to drugs had access to medication and therapy while serving time behind bars.
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