Press

The Seattle City Council voted 6-3 Tuesday to align the city’s municipal code with a 2023 state law making public drug use and possession a gross misdemeanor and give the City Attorney’s Office authority to prosecute those crimes. Read more.

At least half a dozen student-led groups across the state provide space to socialize and make friends in ways that don’t revolve around partying and give voice to the importance of having fentanyl test strips and naloxone readily available on campus. Read more.

Narcan, the first opioid overdose reversal medication approved for over-the-counter purchase, is being shipped to drugstore and grocery chains nationwide. Big-box outlets like Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and Rite Aid said they expected Narcan to be available online and on many store shelves early next week. Read more.

Rep. Adam Smith and Dr. Delphin-Rittmon of SAMSHA sat down at Evergreen Treatment Services for a discussion about the nationwide substance use crisis and the steps we can take at the local, state, and federal level to address this crisis. Read more.

As street drugs have become ever more powerful and deadly, a small nonprofit in Manhattan dedicated to preventing overdoses has drawn politicians and health officials from around the country searching for possible solutions to the opioid epidemic. Read more.

A program that brings treatment services for people with opioid use disorders will be expanded into Pioneer Square following a key vote by the Seattle City Council on Tuesday. Read more.

Pre-pandemic, accessing emergency shelter in the Seattle area often meant being packed into a room with strangers on all sides. The pandemic spurred radical changes in the homeless shelter system, leading to more space, more privacy, and more autonomy for people. Read more.

The drug treatment landscape in the Seattle area is vast, ranging from low-barrier harm-reduction work to lengthy residential inpatient treatment centers. The core of substance-use disorder treatment falls into three categories: medication-assisted treatment, outpatient treatment and inpatient treatment. Read more.

Cantwell’s roundtable participants included Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, the city’s police and fire chiefs, Evergreen Treatment Services CEO Steve Woolworth, University of Washington researcher Caleb Banta-Green, and a mother who lost her 20-year-old son after he bought what he thought was a painkiller that turned out to contain fentanyl. Read more.

Readers responded to a June 4 article “Outreach, Outside,” about downtown street-outreach worker Mikel Kowalcyk and the clientele she helps. Read more.

The Multnomah County Health Department was slated to provide smoking supplies to fentanyl and meth users starting this month in an effort to dissuade them from using needles to inject the drugs, which can lead to more potent, fatal doses and the spread of diseases. Read more.

A majority of Seattleites say they approve of the city’s increased clearing of homeless encampments in the past few years, based on a June poll. But they are less enthusiastic on how successful this approach is. Read more.

To many public health experts, the tough new fentanyl laws seem like a replay of the war-on-drugs sentencing era of the 1980s and 90s that responded to crack and powder cocaine. They worry the result will be similar: The incarcerated will be mostly low-level dealers, particularly people of color, who may be selling to support their own use. Read more.

DCHS, Public Health, and many community providers are working to increase access to life-saving medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone. These medications can reduce the risk of overdose and reduce the recurrence of opioid use by stabilizing withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Read more.

In a 5-4 vote Tuesday, the Seattle City Council rejected a bill that would have given the city attorney the authority to prosecute drug possession and public drug use cases, following nearly three hours of public comment. Read more.

Longtime REACH worker Mikel Kowalcyk is intimately familiar with downtown blocks, and describes them as a kind of bog. “People get stuck there,” she says. “Because that’s where the drugs are. It’s a community of people using together. And as a city, we’ve never had the resources we need to assist them.” Read more.

Data presented to the Seattle City Council Tuesday morning suggests most people using drugs want to reduce or stop their substance use. Read more.

Due to extreme heat, with temperatures in the 80’s and potentially higher, KCRHA is activating Severe Weather Response protocols in Seattle from Saturday, May 13 through Monday, May 15. Read more.

Representative Adam Smith (D-Wash.) introduced the Behavioral Health Crisis Care Centers Act, which would provide grant funding for states, cities and counties, and tribal governments to build and expand crisis stabilization services with housing assistance and other wrap around services. Read more.

The Washington House voted down a last-minute deal to maintain a criminal penalty for drug possession and boost funding for treatment on the final day of the legislative session, leaving the state’s drug laws in question. Read more.

In the last days of Washington’s legislative session, advocates and lawmakers want to greatly increase two state funds to address student and family homelessness. Read more.

Decades of mass incarceration have resulted in a prison population growing older and more enfeebled, and has introduced the challenge of reintegrating people coming out after long sentences, often with few skills, into a society that technology has made alienatingly unfamiliar. Read more.

This month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved selling Narcan without a prescription, a victory for longtime advocates calling on the agency to make the lifesaving drug more accessible. Read more.

A group of businesses, clergy, law enforcement, housing outreach workers, and some Burien city leaders are calling on King County for help. Read more.

Health officials say fentanyl test strips could help prevent accidental overdoses, but under current law, they’ve been illegal because they fall under the definition of drug paraphernalia. Read more.

For years, Seattle officials have alleged that King County’s suburbs are pushing “their” homeless people into Seattle. Read more.

The Third Avenue Project seeks to accomplish what many before have failed to do: end the open-air drug and stolen-goods market that has pervaded the heart of Downtown for decades. Read more.

Faced with a long-term future of hybrid work, Seattle’s downtown boosters are rethinking what the neighborhood needs to be to remain a place where lots of people want to spend time. Read more.

The Puyallup Tribe late last month awarded a combined $293,785 to 32 local organizations via its Charity Trust Board. Read more.

Six months after King County received housing vouchers in May 2021, only 10 had been used to move people into housing — one of the worst rates in the country in a region with one of the largest populations of people in need of housing. Read more.

Starting this year, the Washington State Department of Licensing will offer a one-time original or renewed state ID card at no cost for those who are homeless and expected to continue living in Washington. Read more.

The King County Regional Homelessness Authority estimates it would take more than $8 billion in capital costs, up to $3.5 billion in annual operating costs and tens of thousands more units of housing. Read more.

A record 310 homeless people died in the Seattle area last year, highlighting the region’s struggle to house the thousands of people living on its streets. Read more.

A new proposal by State Rep. Tarra Simmons (D-Bremerton) would raise that minimum wage to match Washington’s at $15.74 an hour.

Simmons also happens to be the first ever formerly incarcerated person to be elected to the State Legislature. Read more.

Despite promises to decrease homelessness and crime with compassion and “immediately create more efficient and effective solutions” with Partnership Zero, Mayor Bruce Harrell’s response has been anything but compassionate or effective. Read more.

As of the end of October, the Seattle Police Department’s crime dashboard shows reports of crime downtown have fallen to nearly half of what they were at the start of 2022. Read more.

What you need to know about Seattle’s 2023-24 biennial budget. The City of Seattle passed the 2023-24 biennial budget, addressing affordable housing and other critical needs. Read more.

Dozens of human services workers rallied at Seattle City Hall plaza on Tuesday morning, calling for the city and King County to adjust their wages to keep up with inflation and to preserve homelessness services that could go away as one-time federal funding expires. Read more.

Tricia Howe, who directs an outreach program for drug users at REACH, Evergreen Treatment Services’ homeless outreach program, had firsthand experience of King County’s overdose crisis earlier this summer. In a matter of weeks, there were two overdoses outside REACH’s Belltown office. Read more.

On Oct. 13, Mayor Bruce Harrell announced a proposed budget that contained sweeping changes to his Unified Care Team (UCT), a group overseen by Deputy Mayor Tiffany Washington and tasked with the removal of unauthorized encampments on city property, colloquially known as “sweeps.” Read more.

The King County Regional Homelessness Authority opened a smoke shelter Tuesday to relieve people living outside from the unhealthy air that’s blanketed the region, but few people so far have taken the respite. Read more.

If there’s one thing the powerful entities fighting over the future of Camp Hope seem to agree on, it’s that the camp can’t last forever. The debate is about “when” — not “if” — the East Central homeless encampment will come down. Read more.

People with substance use disorders have a significantly heightened risk of suicide. Compared with the general population, risk of suicide is about 14 times higher among people addicted to heroin and prescribed opioids and about five to 10 times higher among those dependent on alcohol or meth. The statistics are staggering, experts agree. And yet they likely underestimate the overlap between addiction and suicide. Read more.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently authorized updated COVID-19 boosters meant to protect recipients from common COVID-19 Omicron strains. The state Department of Health is planning a fall rollout for the updated booster. Read more.

A six-week effort to remove a homeless camp may become a model for other efforts to help people off the streets in King County.

Until a few days ago, the encampment at S Dearborn St and I-5 had been a source of crime and neighborhood concerns. However, a collaborative, multi-agency approach managed to bring just about everyone inside. Read more.

The needs of homeowners and businesses and those of people who are unsheltered often conflict. Community leaders, faced with increasing crime and disorder, frequently see police sweeps as the only answer, while advocates for homeless people argue that this response is merely a stopgap that does more damage than good. Read more.

America’s homelessness problem has the makings of an acute crisis. Shelters across the U.S. are reporting a surge in people looking for help, with wait lists doubling or tripling in recent months. The number of homeless people outside of shelters is also probably rising, experts say. Some of them live in encampments, which have popped up in parks and other public spaces in major cities from Washington, D.C., to Seattle since the pandemic began. Read more.

Much of the low-income and public housing in Seattle is older, made of concrete or brick, and lacks air conditioning. After four days of temperatures reaching 90-plus degrees, some people who live in the affordable housing building, Pacific Apartments in Pioneer Square, and the outdoors are feeling the impact. They have fewer means to escape the effects of extreme heat and are more likely to have weakened immune systems. Read more.

Seattle is expected to see unusually high temperatures, rising above 90 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday. In anticipation of the heat wave, King County’s Regional Homelessness Authority is opening indoor daytime cooling spaces in addition to the daytime and overnight shelters that are usually open. Read more.

Overdose death rates in the U.S. increased dramatically in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic arrived, especially among Black, American Indian and Alaska Native individuals, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as deadly synthetic opioids flooded the nation and access to treatment remained elusive for millions of Americans. Read more.

On July 13, the King County Road Services Division will begin clearing garbage and debris that has accumulated on a section of Green River Road between Kent and Auburn in unincorporated King County. This comes after a recent three-day effort by King County, the King County Regional Homelessness Authority, and non-profits, including the Salvation Army, REACH, and Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission, ending on Saturday, to reduce the number of individuals experiencing homelessness living at the encampment and connect them with shelter and services. Read more.

This is a tension that’s playing out across West Coast cities, as the combination of a mental health crisis and a decade long real estate boom have created a new, especially vulnerable, especially visible generation of the unhoused. They’re “unsheltered,” meaning they live in cars, tents and makeshift shelters on the streets, rather than in shelters. Over the decade between 2009 and 2019, unsheltered homelessness continued to grow in California, Oregon and Washington, even as it declined in major cities outside the West Coast. And as the unsheltered increasingly live on streets in residential neighborhoods, their new neighbors have turned to one place for help in particular: the police. Read more. 

The particulars have changed, as has its center of gravity: First Avenue to Second to Third. Its name also shifts, depending on who’s talking about which decade. Old-timers recalling the 1960s say “Skid Row.” Needle-exchange workers from the ’80s talk about “Penney’s Corner” (after a nearby JCPenney). To Deputy Seattle City Attorney Scott Lindsay, it’s “3P” (for Third and Pike/Pine). In 1990, an article about crack cocaine by Seattle Weekly writer Eric Scigliano reported that dealers were calling it “The Blade.” That name stuck.

Whatever you call it, the overall milieu has tremendous sticking power — despite gentrification and repeated police interventions. Read more.

Local legal aid attorneys say bureaucratic roadblocks and unnecessary delays cost the county badly needed resources — and in some cases cost Yakima tenants their homes. Read more.

With a $2.5 million National Institutes of Health grant, researchers at the University of Washington will explore one of the most important questions related to this emergency policy change: whether those changes helped with another opioid-related crisis: the unequal access experienced by Black and Latinx patients to buprenorphine. Read more.

On a recent Friday, Soledad Brown, a volunteer at the Rainier Valley Food Bank, was grateful for a day without rain. A line of 30 or 40 people wound around the building and into the parking lot as customers waited for bags of groceries. “Yesterday I got drenched,” Brown said. “I always try to brighten everyone’s day.”

A former client of the South Seattle food bank, Brown has been an energetic presence here for three years. She takes two buses and the light rail from Des Moines every weekday to help distribute food and make patrons feel welcome. Brown said she has noticed that demand for food hasn’t declined this year. Even as businesses reopen, and the state’s unemployment level is back down near 4%, the need for food assistance remains high. Read more.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is working to make it easier for people with a criminal record to find housing – a move that could have widespread implications for nearly 1 in 3 Americans.

In a memo sent out to staff on Tuesday, HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge instructed the department to review programs and policies that may “pose barriers to housing for persons with criminal histories or their families.”

Fudge told staffers they have six months to propose updates and amendments consistent with the directive to “make our policies as inclusive as possible.” Among the many things HUD staffers will be looking into are guidance documents, model leases and other agreements.

Some federal laws ban people convicted of certain crimes from accessing publicly funded housing programs, including anyone convicted of methamphetamine production on the premises of federally assisted housing, lifetime registered sex offenders and people convicted of drug possession. Read more.

Injection drug use across the United States is increasing as the misuse of prescription and synthetic opioids rages on.

Many people who misuse drugs choose to inject because it delivers a faster, more intense high. But this method of delivering drugs into the body, particularly for people who share needles or syringes, also comes with an increased risk of transmitting bloodborne diseases like hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

According to the CDC, sharing syringes is the second-riskiest behavior for contracting HIV. Injection drug use is the most common way that hepatitis C is transmitted, and infection rates have been increasing, especially among younger populations. More than 40% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 have reported sharing syringes, and according to the most recent report from the CDC, hepatitis C infections were highest among people in this same age bracket, peaking at age 29.

To help slow the spread of injection-related infectious diseases, many states have implemented syringe service programs (SSPs), also referred to as syringe or needle exchange programs. These programs offer safe disposal of used syringes, access to sterile needles and syringes, vaccination and testing, and substance use treatment resources. Read more.

Catholic Community Services will work with Plymouth Housing, Downtown  Emergency Services Center (DESC), Chief Seattle Club, Evergreen Treatment Services REACH program and Mary’s Place to connect individuals who are homeless and already living in hotels throughout South King County with the college. Once enrolled at Highline, students will be able to earn the certificate in one to three quarters. The certificate is a combination of Human Services and Hospitality & Tourism Management courses that prepare students to work in hotels that do and do not serve those without permanent housing. Read more here.

Drug overdoses now kill more than 100,000 Americans a year — more than vehicle crash and gun deaths combined. Sean Blake was among those who died. He overdosed at age 27 in Vermont, from a mix of alcohol and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. He had struggled to find effective treatment for his addiction and other potential mental health problems, repeatedly relapsing. Read more here.

Clinical Advisor highlights Jim Anderson, MPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA, a PA of 21 years who works at Evergreen Treatment Services Opioid Treatment Program, Seattle, WA. Anderson is the current president of the AAPA Society of PAs in Addiction Medicine and also holds the commissioner position on the Washington State Medical Commission. Read more here. 

“Methadone is totally unrestricted in its use for pain, which is completely backward as most of the morbidity and mortality from methadone comes from very uninformed prescribing for pain,” commented Jim Anderson, MPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA, an addiction medicine expert who works at Evergreen Treatment Services Opioid Treatment Program in Seattle. The stigma drives the restrictiveness of methadone prescription for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) “is indeed a reflection of the discriminatory and prejudicial beliefs about both OUD patients and OUD clinics,” he said.  Read more here. 

“People don’t identify themselves as being vulnerable to some severe weather situations that we may see coming up,” said Chloe Gale, co-director of the outreach program REACH. “It takes some time and effort to help them figure out what are they really going to want.” Read more here.

Febben Fekadu, housing director at nonprofit Evergreen Treatment Services and its REACH outreach program, said her organization is dealing with similar issues. It’s difficult to get paperwork in order for clients living outdoors in tents and in vehicles. “A lot of social services are operating under capacity right now,” Fekadu added. Read more here. 

This major reduction in cases is thanks to King County’s early investment in an extensive free vaccination program and help from community partners, including Harborview Medical Center, VA Puget Sound, community clinics, Evergreen Treatment Services’ REACH program, Operation Nightwatch, and Downtown Emergency Services Center.  Read more here.

Q2 data shows the most shelter referrals and enrollments ever recorded by the Human Services Department…. “The HOPE Team has made tremendous strides standing up this new model and approach to supporting those living unsheltered in Seattle,” Tess Colby, HSD’s Interim Deputy Director on Homelessness, writes in the report. “Their collaborative efforts with outreach and shelter providers, City departments and community, have resulted in hundreds of people moving from encampments to safer spaces and on a pathway to ending their experience of homelessness.” Read more here. 

As Burien residents, workers and friends, we are concerned about the misconceptions of some of our fellow neighbors and some candidates for Burien City Council who stand against supportive housing for our most needy community, those in the 0-30% AMI (Area Median Income) range. Read more here.

One of the 13 people who died is presumed to have been homeless, according Public Health.

That 11% likely undersells just how precarious the situation was for people without stable housing, outreach workers say. Becky Gilley normally does outreach to eight large encampments in the SoDo area with REACH, but she was able to visit only one and a half during the heat wave. What she saw were people pouring sweat, so much so that she suspected widespread heat exhaustion. Read more here. 

Councilmember Andrew J. Lewis (District 7 – Pioneer Square to Magnolia), service providers and members from the business community announced the publication of a University of Washington study demonstrating the effectiveness of the JustCARE model, and provided a tangible example of how 33 individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness on 3rd Avenue downtown were connected with appropriate shelter by JustCARE and voluntarily accepted. Read more here.

The treatment system has never been particularly helpful to people grappling with mental illness, addiction and homelessness, but the shift to telemedicine and virtual treatment has laid bare that divide, according to Kim Powers, a referral coordinator at Evergreen Treatment Services’ homeless outreach arm, who has worked in the system for more than 20 years.

“If you’re living homeless, you may have to move. You may have changed your mind. You may decide that treatment isn’t right for you right now,” Powers said. “So to be able to capture them at the moment they want help is not the way the system is set up.” Read more here. 

Many people living outdoors are now almost entirely separated from the county’s homeless services system. Of 78 people living at one encampment located beneath an overpass in the Chinatown International District last year, just 40 were currently enrolled in the county’s homeless services data system, according to information collected by outreach workers.

The same outreach workers see another dynamic in the county data.

“That plunge [in households receiving services through the homelessness system] is an indicator that all of the services supporting people living outside shut down,” said Chloe Gale, co-director of REACH. “Their numbers dropped because there were no services left.” Read more here.

Chloe Gale, co-director of city-contracted outreach team REACH, said outreach workers should be part of the discussions on how encampments are prioritized by the city. She also shares similar concerns to the letter writers that some of the city’s new daily data collection requirements would take away from their other work.

“We want the decision-making table where the outreach strategies and the concerns of the people living at the site and their needs are also part of the consideration of how and when encampments get responded to,” Gale said.  Read more here.

Heather Barr has worked in the health sciences and social services sectors in King County for more than 30 years, often in connection with marginalized, homeless or incarcerated populations and people struggling with substance-use disorders.

Substance-use disorder never occurs in a vacuum, Barr says, but is part of a much larger medical, social and behavioral picture. The most effective way to treat it is a holistic approach that considers the whole person and all their circumstances, including housing issues, physical/mental health and overall security and well-being. Read more here. 

A new coalition of local nonprofit organizations and neighborhood groups called Compassion Seattle unveiled a charter amendment on Thursday aimed at addressing homelessness in Seattle. Read more here. 

When more than a dozen people tested positive for the coronavirus at a homeless camp in South Park in July, despair set in.

“How long do I have to live?” Kenny Palazzo asked his case manager, Dawn Whitson, when he tested positive. Whitson, who works for REACH, the outreach arm of a local nonprofit drug treatment provider, told him he would most likely live, but he needed to isolate in a hotel and quarantine. Read more here.

Victory! After years of activism and prolonged demonstrations in support of defunding Seattle Police, city-council has made the historic vote of dissolving the Navigation Team responsible for forcibly driving out homeless community members from their encampments. We support solutions that get to the root of chronic homelessness and provide these members of our community with proper services.

As highlighted in the past, our LEAD program participants have “60% lower odds of arrest for six months after their first arrest and 39% lower odds of catching a felony case over the next two years.” With protests in the area showing large support for a shift to community-led programs in response to 9-1-1 calls on cases of homelessness, mental health, drug use, and sex work, find out how allocating funds away from the police and to programs like ours will make our communities safer for all.

This GeekWire article explains Lyssn, which uses AI and machine learning to more efficiently and objectively evaluate counseling sessions and provides secure telehealth capabilities. Michelle Peavy, ETS clinical psychologist and research consultant, explains how this technology will improve our abilities to care for our patients from a distance.

“The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program (LEAD) also moved clients into hotel rooms during the coronavirus crisis. Many have decided to enter treatment programs, said Melodie Reece, a project manager with LEAD.” 

The stability that hotel housing has provided has brought many clients to pursue medication-assisted treatment, a process that requires consistency. This consistency and safety are threatened as housing provisions are set to expire.  

We are now partnering with emocha Health to utilize Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) which confirms that individuals take their methadone as prescribed and in the correct dose, and prevents diversion.

REACH outreach care coordinator, Dawn Whitson explains the added layers of difficulty navigating the COVID-19 pandemic for her clients experiencing homelessness. As she continues to bring food from food banks, deliver clothing, and connect them to medical care, her concerns for their well-being continues to rise.

In this KUOW interview, Mayor Jenny Durkan responds to Dawn Whitson, REACH outreach care coordinator’s concerns over not having enough shelter spaces, and the need to use hotels to distance people.

Our REACH team is teaming up with Asian Counseling and Referral Services (ACRS) to ensure that people in our area are receiving meals during the coronavirus crisis.

ETS nurse, Jackie Brolsma speaks with KUOW about how we are continuing to provide high-quality care for our patients during the coronavirus crisis.

“In Seattle, the nonprofit Evergreen Treatment Services set up a mobile dispensary — a customized van — in the parking lot of its largest clinic to give opioid medications to symptomatic patients. Group counseling has temporarily been suspended; counselors are talking to patients by phone.” Check out this Washington Post article on the evolving needs of addiction treatment facilities, with our CEO, Steve Woolworth quoted inside.

“Now, a solution employed by some Washington counties appears to offer an effective tool for reaching individuals trapped at the intersection of addiction, criminal activity and homelessness.” Dorothy Bullitt, an ETS donor writes about the importance of medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder in King County jails.

ETS speaks up about the threat to funding essential services, while others weigh in about how essential the services are to the community.

On the front page of The New York Times Sunday Review, Nicholas Kristof called out the ineffectiveness of the “War on Drugs” the U.S. has been waging for decades. After his visit to Seattle, including a few days with REACH’s LEAD case managers and clients, he is convinced that innovative, compassionate approaches like ours are the way forward.

Sean Soth sat down with KDOX’s radio podcast “3 to 1” to educate the public about the different services ETS provides, from medication-assisted treatment to our new Treatment in Motion van, to REACH.

The Washington Post profiles Seattle’s LEAD program and progressive policies to better address low-level drug possession charges, featuring REACH Case Manager Mikel Kowalcyk.

This Crosscut opinion piece lays out an alternative to criminalizing homelessness and substance use disorders – including supportive housing and medication-assisted treatment.

The proposed safe-injection sites for Seattle and King County are in need of stable funding and could also face legal issues with the federal government, similar to what is happening in Pennsylvania.

The Washington State Healthcare Authority is rolling out a new campaign, ‘Starts With One’, to shed light on the possible dangers of opioid medications.

The Seattle Times Project Homeless team wants to hear from you. Join them for coffee Tuesday, March 26 from 7:45 to 9:00 a.m. at Project Homeless HQ, 6940 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. The team wants to hear what you think about their reporting and discuss the topics they’re writing about. The event is open to all, but please RSVP.

The spike in deaths – caused by the synthetic opioid Fentanyl – rose from 29 deaths per 100,000 people in 1999 to 14.9.

The opioid epidemic has devastated America. It is now the leading cause of death in the U.S. for Americans under 55. How did we get here? “Getting hooked is nobody’s plan. Some turn to heroin because prescription painkillers are tough to get. Fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin, has snaked its way into other drugs like cocaine, Xanax and MDMA, widening the epidemic.” Check out this visual journey through addiction to better understand how opioids hijack the brains of our family and friends.

The Washington State Supreme Court struck down I-27 – the initiative seeking to ban safe injection sites in King County – citing an infringement on the county’s right to set its own budget. “The ruling opens the doors for the county to begin setting up consumption sites as part of its pilot program.”

U.S. life expectancy has decreased for the third year in a row according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2017, there were more than 70,000 drug overdose deaths – the highest for any year recorded. The synthetic opioid Fentanyl remains the top killer of those abusing substances. But there is hope. Statisticians believe that 2018 could show the opioid crisis and overdose deaths leveling off thanks to medication-assisted treatment, the overdose-reversing antidote naloxone, and corralling deceptive pharmaceutical companies.

Will 2018 statistics prove a decrease in opioid-related deaths? Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar thinks so. “There’s solid evidence backing medication-assisted treatment, when used alongside counseling and ongoing support. He also noted much broader access to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, and a documented decline in the number of people misusing prescription opioids as doctors take greater care in prescribing.”

One of the major opioid manufacturing companies accused of deceptively marketing their drugs – Purdue Pharma – is making a $3.4 million grant to produce the overdose-reversing drug naloxone. “Governments are asking for changes in how opioids are marketed, and for help paying for treatment and the costs of ambulance runs, child welfare systems, jails and other expenses associated with the opioid crisis.”

The money is part of an allocation of over $1 billion from the federal government to help stifle the opioid epidemic where overdose and substance abuse are highest.

Although more than 72,000 people died from overdoses last year, our current federal government wants to ban safe injections sites. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein believes the facilities do more harm than good. “This is not a disease that gets spread like the flu, people can only become addicted if they have access to these illegal drugs. If we can prevent that access, we can prevent the addiction.”

“The health district said the dramatic increase in reported overdoses may be due to doctors observing tighter guidelines on opioid prescriptions, leading their patients to turn to heroin or to illegal opioid vendors. The surge may also have been caused by improved data collection, officials said.”

“I thought it was just pills.” The phrase heard over and over again from family members of those who have overdosed. This @NPR story highlights what one journalist learned from years of researching the opioid epidemic.

“At a time of widespread anguish and hand-wringing about addiction, neither the president, nor Congress, nor governors, nor journalists are paying enough attention to the one thing that could truly make a difference: more and better treatment.” Medication-assisted treatment is too critical in addressing the opioid epidemic to be ignored.

ETS’ executive director, Molly Carney, was featured in this Seattle Weekly article on the barriers patients face trying to access medication-assisted treatment.

Through a federal program that places qualified doctors in under-served communities, Dr. Nicole Gastala found herself practicing family medicine in Marhsalltown,IA. She soon began her journey tackling the opioid epidemic in her new town and dealing with the bureaucracy and stigma that comes along with helping people begin their recovery from opioids.

America’s opioid epidemic is not a new one, but a revitalization of substance misuse catalyzed by doctors prescribing a profitable and effective drug. “What is striking is how, aside from some Victorian-era moralizing, they [those who overdose] feel so familiar to a 21st-century reader: Henderson developed an addiction at a vulnerable point in her life, found doctors who enabled it and then self-destructed. She was just one of thousands of Americans who lost their lives to addiction between the 1870s and the 1920s.”

The current opioid epidemic is the worst drug epidemic in U.S history. Epidemics have plagued countries across the 19th and 20th centuries and wars were fought over opium. The medical community is largely blamed for the epidemics that have affected populations over the years. Why have we not learned from our past?

“Medicines like methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone are used to help people who have addictions to opioids including heroin and fentanyl. The persistence of methadone and the emergence of buprenorphine as weapons in the battle against addiction is viewed with skepticism by supporters of strict abstinence from all narcotics.”

The Surgeon General advises that more people should carry the overdose antidote naloxone (Narcan).

Governor Inslee signed into law a supplemental capital budget. ETS was awarded $3 million for increased behavioral health capacity.

Safe injection sites violate U.S. Federal Law yet can save tens of thousands of lives across the United States. In the wake of the largest drug epidemic in U.S. history – far surpassing the AIDS epidemic –  the U.S. must turn to innovative and radical ideas to halt this deadly epidemic. Safe injection sites attract the most marginalized populations of those who inject drugs, promote safe conditions for injecting, and open doors for those who are ready to seek healthcare – both mental and physical. These people already exist in our communities and these sites help them find the support they need to get into recovery. Cities like Vancouver and Sydney have already approved safe injection sites. The data surrounding these sites prove that there is no enhanced drug use or drug trafficking. So why are U.S. cities having such a hard time legalizing sites to help stifle the opioid epidemic? Stigma surrounding safe injection sites and public misconception are holding back lawmakers from approving said sites. This NYT article shows how Philadelphia is surpassing the bureaucracy and providing the needed help to substance users.

“We have a crisis on our hands — and the last half century we’ve been failing to solve it.” New York Times opinion contributors show how we’ve lost the war on drugs, and what to do next.

“‘For 100-plus years as a society, we’ve punished and criminalized people who use drugs.”

This has fostered an environment in which people who are addicted to drugs are seen not as victims of a disease who need help, as we would see, say, someone with cancer. Instead, they’re viewed as wrongdoers and perpetrators of their own illness.” Reporter German Lopez from Vox on the stigma of addiction.

Seattle and King County lawmakers have been grappling with the opioid crisis. Last year, over 300 people died of an overdose. A contentious idea – safe injection sites – exist in many places around the world. Many people wonder if the sites will help or hinder the substance user. “You can’t help a dead person”, states Michael Roberts, Victim’s Father & Co-Founder, Amber’s H.O.P.E. With Narcan, staff at the sites are able to revive those who overdose. REACH’s Co -Director Chloe Gale joins Seattle City Councilman Rob Johnson, Dr. Joe Merrill, and Gretchen Taylor of Neighborhood Safety Alliance of Seattle to discuss the pros and cons of safe injection sites.

Philanthropy and local government are changing the way substance abuse affect our families, neighbors, and friends. That moment when someone thinks, “I need to get help” is the “tiny window of opportunity,” says ETS Executive Director, Molly Carney.  However, wait times can be detrimental towards the recovery process. “Currently, only five out of 29 local treatment agencies are able to consistently provide on-demand outpatient treatment for low-income clients.” Billionaire Steve and Connie Ballmer’s philanthropy and King County will soon be funding incentive payments for on-demand, outpatient treatment.

ETS Executive Director, Molly Carney, writes in the Seattle Times about Trump’s opioid crisis decision, “The problem is too overwhelming without increased support at the federal level. Had the president actually declared a national emergency, we would be better equipped to do more, right now.”

“According to Facing Addiction, one in three American households have a family member in active addiction, in recovery, or lost to an overdose.”Battling stigma is one of the many pillars to defeating addiction. By supporting those in recovery to speak up about their journey, one may inspire another to begin theirs to recovery.

“Had he declared a national emergency rather than a public health emergency, it would have immediately released federal money, which would have gone to drug treatment programs like King County’s Evergreen Treatment Services (ETS).”

At Evergreen Treatment Services we support safe injection sites. Public policy should be formed from data not stigma. “…safe injection sites, which would be supervised, could save addicts from overdosing while protecting the public from used needles.” Superior Court Judge Veronica Alicea Galvan ruled that Initiative 27 – which bans safe injection sites – extends beyond the scope of the initiative power.

In the midst of the opioid epidemic, the U.S. should look across the pond for strategies.  “Portugal undertook a monumental experiment: It decriminalized the use of all drugs in 2001, even heroin and cocaine, and unleashed a major public health campaign to tackle addiction. Ever since in Portugal, drug addiction has been treated more as a medical challenge than as a criminal justice issue.” Portugal boasts the lowest drug-induced deaths statistics in Western Europe, a fraction of the 312 deaths per million people in the U.S., ages 15-64.

Until President Trump officially transmits his decision to Congress  – signing it into national emergency status – millions of dollars to fight the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history will lie dormant. Simply saying the word “emergency” will not halt fatal opioid overdose any sooner.

In a new study, researchers found that a doctor’s medical school education may shape their opioid prescribing habits. Research compiled by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that doctors who studied at low-ranking medical schools prescribed 3x more opioids than those who studied at Harvard.

A lawsuit has been filed to overthrow I-27, which seeks to ban safe injection sites. The lawsuit purports that citizens do not have the right to weigh scientific evidence on a multi-faceted public health issue at the ballot box. “I-27 would set a dangerous precedent for public health. Supervised Consumption Spaces are an essential tool in fighting the opiate epidemic,” Dr. Bob Wood, former director of the HIV/AIDS Program at Public Health-Seattle & King County.

“Molly Carney and her team hope every day that their hard work is saving people’s lives.

Carney is executive director of Evergreen Treatment Services, a nonprofit that offers medication-assisted treatment for adults with opioid use disorders and operates the Reach team, which provides street-based case management and outreach services to more than 1,000 homeless adults with substance-use disorders in the greater Seattle area each year. Carney joined ETS in 2013 and has grown the treatment side of the organization from two clinics serving 1,400 adults a year in Washington to four clinics serving 3,000.”

Read the full interview by PSBJ’s Coral Garnick.

“[The opioid epidemic] is a public health issue, with a very effective intervention,” ETS’s Molly Carney reacts on KOMO News to a recent University of Washington study showing a record number of drug-related deaths in 2016.

For heroin and other opioid addiction, the medication-assisted treatment that ETS provides has been proven to reduce overdose.

The opioid crisis is the worst drug crisis in the U.S. ever. How did we get here? Policymakers and the medical community must push agenda to reform how Americans view the opioid crisis.

The White House panel doing research on the opioid epidemic suggests Trump declare a state of emergency. “America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks.” Since 1999, the amount of overdoses in the U.S. has quadrupled.

“For every person who moves into a freshly minted affordable apartment, another one or two fall out.” This is the reality of the homelessness crisis in the Greater Seattle Area. In recent years, Seattle and King County have tried to fund affordable housing initiatives.”Despite the large investments, publicly subsidized affordable housing has not kept up. Which is where private-market landlords come into the picture.”

GOP lawmakers looking to repeal the Affordable Care Act face resistance from members in their party who come from regions hardest hit by the opioid epidemic. Medicaid currently pays for about 25 percent of all substance use treatment.

This map from the C.D.C. shows which counties have the highest opioid prescription rates. “The opioid prescription rate is not evenly distributed. […] Large swaths of the country had significantly higher rates of opioid prescriptions per capita in 2015, with particular hot spots being Northern California, Southern Nevada, Western Maine, and Tennessee.”

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s new opioid prescribing trend analysis shows that while the amount of opioids prescibed overall has dropped 18 percent between 2010 and 2015, the prescribing rate is still three times as high as the rate in 1999.

In three major U.S. cities – Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco – librarians are learning how to use the overdose antidote naloxone as those with substance use disorders frequent library restrooms.

One clinic in Vancouver, BC is treating people with opioid use disorders with medical-grade heroin. “The idea is this: If some people are going to use heroin no matter what, it’s better to give them a safe source of the stuff and a safe place to inject it, rather than letting them pick it up on the street — laced with who knows what — and possibly overdose without medical supervision.”

After Trump promised to resolve America’s opioid epidemic on the campaign trail, his recent budget which proposed cutting funds from addiction treatment, research, and prevention, has left families reeling from this crisis disappointed and angry.

Research confirms medication-assisted treatment (MAT) –  with medications such as methadone and buprenorphine – is effective in preventing recurrence of use and overdose. Despite MAT skeptics, the American Society of Addiction Medicine recommends medication combined with counseling as the optimal treatment strategy for most patients.

Moving away from the argument that the opioid epidemic is being fueled by white working class despair and economic sluggishness, evidence points to changing drug markets and criminal networks as the real culprits.

Public restrooms have become a public safety and health concern as they are being used as a place for people to use heroin and other drugs. This radio feature highlights a user navigating Boston’s public restroom arena, a local business owner, and an addiction expert at Boston Medical Center to explore the challenges and propose solutions, one of which are safe consumption sites.

Canadian government extends permission to three Canadian cities – Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa – to set up safe injection sites; coordinator of the Toronto planned site explains why they’re necessary to fight the crisis on the ground.

“Amid a national catastrophe as serious as the opioid drug crisis, Trump lacks the knowledge and discipline to pursue the sorts of policies that would save more lives or do more good, even when the flaws of his alternative approach are glaringly obvious. The full consequences of his frustrating shortcomings may prove terrible, indeed.”

Research findings show that unlike the war on drugs, treatment for substance use disorders has a tangible impact on crime reduction. Counseling paired with medication, such as methadone or buprenorphine, has been shown to be the most cost-effective way to treat opioid use disorder. C.D.C. researcher Harold Pollack explained, “the economic value of crime reduction largely or totally offsets the cost of treatment.”

Lacey City Council approved a $250,000 community development grant to Evergreen Treatment Services to expand the South Sound Clinic. This is a reflection of the council’s acknowledgement of the growing opioid epidemic and their commitment to finding solutions.

This interactive charts allows readers to estimate how the opioid epidemic compares to other causes of death in the U.S., and then shows how close those estimations are to the real numbers.

In response to the growing opioid epidemic, Seattle lawmakers consider launching safe-consumption sites, allowing users to consume drugs under medical supervision.

Op-ed highlights the need to make progress against the opioid epidemic through economic integration and job creation efforts for rural, blighted communities in the U.S.

New York models the actions needed nationwide to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic, and commits to an ambitious plan to cut overdose deaths and get people the treatment they need.

Seattle Channel weighs pros and cons of the Heroin and Opioid Task Force’s recommended safe consumption sites in Seattle.

Despite increasing evidence that almost half of fatal overdoses began with a doctor prescription of opioids, polls gathered from 3,000 participants show people aren’t shying away from the medications.

Survey compiled by Seattle human Services indicates most Seattle homeless are “homegrown” and large numbers are either former foster children or veterans, and nearly a quarter have attended college.

The opioid epidemic has hit Utah hard – a state already struggling with a lack of health care– so the Syringe Exchange has stepped in to help prevent fatal overdoses by giving people what they need to inject drugs safely. People bring their dirty syringes and exchange are provided with clean syringes, tourniquets, alcohol swabs, first aid kits, and if possible, the overdose antidote naloxone.

Sam Quinones, author of the book Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, writes for the New York Times on how walls can stop people, but do not stop drugs.

Evergreen Treatment Services’s Michelle Peavey weighs in on the value of medication assisted treatment with other professionals at a summit in Kingston on February 4.

Seattle and King County move towards creating nation’s first safe drug sites to combat the opioid crisis based on the Herion and Prescription Opiate Addiction Task Force’s recommendation.

King County Board of Health unanimously voted to support the task force on heroin’s recommendation of opening safe drug consumption sites.

The New York Times covers LEAD’s harm reduction approach toward people, like Roland Vasquez, who are caught in the cycle of incarceration.  Vasquez describes his struggle with substance use and LEAD’s role in keeping him in treatment and rebuilding his life and relationships.

Read more!

This special radio documentary covers life in “the Jungle” – a homeless encampment under Seattle’s I-5 freeway.

MTV teams up with multi-platinum artist Macklemore to go inside America’s opioid epidemic, meeting those living with addiction and heading to Washington DC for an exclusive talk with President Obama on this important issue. Watch now!

We are opening a new clinic in South King County. Listen to Executive Director, Molly Carney discuss the need for treatment in this area with Emily Fox.

PBS Frontline’s documentary “Chasing Heroin” covers the heroin epidemic in Western Washington and the various efforts to treat and manage this public health crisis.

Northwest Now, a production of KBTC Tacoma interviews Molly Carney, ETS executive director, Caleb Banta-Green of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute at the UW, and former TV journalist Penny LeGate who tragically lost her daughter to heroin overdose.

The Daily World in Hoquiam discusses the best treatment options for inmates with opioid use disorders.

ETS Executive Director, Molly Carney, speaks with Mark Wright of King 5 about the heroin epidemic and available treatment options.

We are launching a new program to get treatment to rural areas of Western Washington where the heroin epidemic is hitting people hard. Learn more in this interview between Molly Carney, Executive Director of ETS, and Ross Reynolds on KUOW’s The Record.

REACH’s LEAD program is changing the way that the Seattle Police Department is handling low-level drug offenders.  Check out the program featured on ABC’s Nightline.