New addiction treatment medication in Marion County jail will be “big game changer”

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Addiction treatment at the Marion County jail will soon include longer-lasting medication for people struggling with opioid use.

Through a new state grant from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office will start providing injectable medication in addition to oral tablets by early March.

Addiction treatment medications can block feelings of withdrawal and cravings and can help people feel normal while starting sobriety. 

The main difference in injectable medication is that it stays in someone’s system for a month, while tablets, which are taken daily, will wear off within 48 hours once stopped. 

Time in jail and prison can lead people with addictions to go through withdrawal or lose some of their tolerance to substances they use. After they’re released, people often relapse and overdose due to a lower tolerance.

People recently released from incarceration are over 10 times more likely to overdose from opioids than the general public, according to Oregon researchers.

Since insurance is paused while they are in jail, it could take around two weeks for people to access their usual health care.

A longer-lasting medication will give people a chance to maintain sobriety after getting out of jail.

“How are you supposed to deal with your opioid addiction or the medications that you’re receiving while in custody to help with that when you get out?” Josh Lair, Ideal Option’s Oregon operations manager, said. The addiction treatment provider has worked with the jail since 2023 to provide medication to inmates.

“What ends up happening is people go back to substances,” Laid said. He described the longer-lasting medication as a “big game changer.”

“The county wanting to do this is gonna save a lot of lives,” he said. 

The $372,000 grant, is from a state program for jail-based medication created by the bill that re-criminalized drug possession in 2024.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office will also use the money to hire a re-entry mentor to help connect people with treatment resources after leaving the jail.

The injectable medication and mentor are supposed to extend the window of time for people to find ways to continue their recovery, Sgt. Jeremy Schwab, spokesman for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, said in an email. 

For two years, the sheriff’s office has partnered with Ideal Option to supply those in custody with subutex tablets. The partnership was funded by a grant through Measure 110, the 2020 ballot measure which decriminalized user quantities of illegal drugs.

“For so long, there was no access to (medication-assisted treatment) treatment services unless you were on methadone with Marion County … if you went to jail you were just up poop creek without a paddle,” Lair said.

Since 2021, there have been at least two fatal overdoses in the Marion County jail, according to records released to Salem Reporter in 2024. One overdose, which was from fentanyl, led to the death of an inmate while he was in his cell.

If the sheriff’s office partners with Ideal Option for injectable medication, which is likely, according to Lair, the organization has three options to choose from. 

Vivitrol, Sublocade and Brixadi are three injectable medications offered at Ideal Option that treat opioid addiction. 

While Sublocade, which is injected into the abdomen with a large syringe, is painful, Lair said, after seven to eight months of injections it can build up to last in the body for at least a year.

“To have that safety net in your system … man, what a security blanket,” Lair said.

The Marion County Board of Commissioners will vote on accepting  the funds in a meeting on Feb. 12. 

Schwab said that in preparation for new medication, the department has budgeted to add more secure medication storage in the jail pharmacy and stabilization center so treatment is not interrupted.

Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected].

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