Anyone who wants to write opioid addicts off as lost causes should consider the case of Bryan Arszman. As The Chieftain reported last week, Arszman became addicted to opioids after he was prescribed painkillers following a football injury he suffered during eighth grade. Arszman started using the painkillers for recreational rather than medicinal reasons, then switched to heroin because it provided a cheaper high.

From there, his story took a couple of predictably tragic turns: He developed an infection in his bloodstream that required open-heart surgery. Then, after his release from the hospital, he was caught stealing food from a store and spent about a year in the Pueblo County jail.

That’s where his downward spiral stopped, thanks to an innovative new program that the jail began offering in January. Arszman agreed to intensive therapy and a regimen of injections of Vivitrol, a prescription drug that blocks cravings for opioids.

Since his release from jail, Arszman is working full time and repairing relationships with family and friends. “I’m still in the recovery process where I’m getting back everything I lost,” Arszman told our reporter Ryan Severance.

Read the full story at the Pueblo Chieftain.