When Cody Goodwin, of Independence, Missouri, was 24, he had already been hooked on opioids, including heroin, for years. His sister decided jail was the only way he could be cut off from drugs, so she reported him to the police.
“I was mad at my sister at first, boy, you know, she got me locked up. I was upset. But now I look back and it saved my life,” Goodwin says.
When he got out, he found a methadone clinic where he could get medication-assisted treatment, but there was a catch that made him leery. If he wanted methadone, he’d have to do talk therapy as well.
Federal treatment guidelines say that drugs to treat opioid use disorder should be used in conjunction with drug counseling. But many people seeking treatment have to wait to get it because of a shortage of counselors to meet the demand.