Pathways through Opioid Misuse among Offenders in Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Programs

• In Event: Drug Use and Drug Markets

Abstract

Anonymous surveys were completed by 175 male prisoners with opioid misuse backgrounds who participated in correctional substance abuse treatment programs in Wisconsin. As their release date neared, they provided information on demographics, three life stressors (health, financial, and family), and their opioid misuse patterns (both prescription painkillers and heroin) in the year prior to their imprisonment. ANCOVAs revealed that age and education were not associated with either prescription painkiller misuse or heroin use, but ethnicity was associated with heroin use, with Black inmates reporting less than White or other ethnicities. Multiple regression analyses comparing the three life stressors found that only financial stressors were significantly associated with both forms of opioid misuse.

Authors

• Durmus Alper Camlibel, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh

• Salih Hakan Can, Penn State Schuylkill