Seattle Nice: New Hope for Fentanyl Users
Three special guests from DESC explain how a new method for administering harm reduction meds is helping drug users stick with treatment.
By Erica C. Barnett
A new way of administering buprenorphine—a gold-standard medication that combats opioid addiction by reducing the need to use drugs like fentanyl to function—is helping people reduce their fentanyl use without the painful withdrawals that keep many users away from other versions of the medication.
The Downtown Emergency Service Center started using the new injection protocol on a pilot basis last year. It's less complicated than other methods (like taking sublingual films every few hours) and doesn't require people to "kick" opioids before starting treatment, making it easier for people to keep using it.
The new protocol, which we discuss with three special guests from DESC this week, has dramatically increased the number of patients who return for their second monthly injections, an important milestone that shows people are staying involved with treatment. People with severe substance use disorders, particularly those without housing, face many hurdles to long-term recovery, but often the first step to stability is escaping a cycle of dependency that can be all-consuming.
Seattle elected officials have become fond of fantasizing about changing laws to make it easier to involuntarily commit people whose drug use occurs in public to mandatory treatment. But as our guests told us, the issue is not that people don't want to quit.
"One thing that this protocol is showing is that so many people don't need to be forced into treatment," DESC medical director Richard Waters told us. "They will come running to it when they have awareness that what's being made available is better than what they had been familiar with before."
Our guests this week are DESC director Daniel Malone, medical director Richard Waters, and registered nurse Penelope Toland.