Drugs, Risk and the Myth of the ‘Evil' Addict

The Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition (VHRC) uses harm reduction strategies to help those suffering from addiction by providing free supplies like overdose reversal spray, safe smoking kits and clean syringes, as well as connection to education and treatment options when people are ready. Those who access services through a harm reduction program are five times more likely to enter treatment programs. Last year alone, the VHRC distributed more than 20,000 doses of Narcan which they know reversed at least 2,000 overdoses.

Oral surgeons and other doctors tend to prescribe opioids to their patients following surgery, which has arguably contributed to a rising number of patients, especially those under the age of 25, developing addictions. Now, thanks to increased awareness and new protocols, doctors and dentists are prescribing fewer opioids and more non-addictive pain killers, as well as educating their patients about their prescriptions.

ACEs quantifies the adverse event in an individual's childhood, as a means to treat addiction. Understanding addiction as resulting from past events helps to treat these individuals through medication and developing a plan to help each patient live a sober life without medications while de-shaming and de-blaming them.

Health engagement hubs like Washington state’s Buprenorphine Pathways connect people with prescriptions for methadone and buprenorphine to help treat addiction. In addition to medication and a syringe-exchange program, the hub also connects patients to social services, taking a more holistic approach to addiction treatment.

Los Angeles County’s Homeless Outreach & Mobile Engagement (HOME) program uses street psychiatry to get psychiatric medication to people experiencing homelessness in an effort to get them a step closer to housing. The HOME team has 223 full-time staff members and served 1,919 people last year, 22% of whom ended the year housed.

The Olympia Bupe Clinic's walk-in model for treating opioid addiction allows patients to receive medication-assisted treatment with buprenorphine on their first visit without barriers or extensive wait times. This low-barrier approach eliminates the hurdles people often face when seeking treatment. The Clinic also hires staff with lived experience with addiction to build trust and community with patients.

The G.R.O.W. syringe service program (SSPs) helps people who use drugs and those who need injection supplies for gender-affirming hormone therapy get access to clean syringes and safely dispose of needles. Community-based programs like G.R.O.W. also offer first-aid kits, at-home HIV tests, Narcan and personal care items. There are currently 13 SSPs registered in the state. In 2023, G.R.O.W. alone distributed more than 44,400 syringes and collected about 37,700.

A significant spike in opioid-related overdose deaths in Philadelphia has resulted in more people in the community carrying Naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal medication. Thanks to a standing order signed by the Pennsylvania physician general as well as a local health insurance company, obtaining the drug has been made much easier which in turn results in more lives potentially being saved.

After the fall of an oppressive and isolating regime, Portugal found itself utterly unprepared to deal with the rapid distribution of narcotics in the 1980s, creating a crisis that left 1 in every 10 people struggling with addiction. The country took a radical approach to rectifying opioid use through a huge cultural shift in the way it viewed and treated addicts - prioritizing support services and pioneering programs like needle-exchange and substitution therapy, and eventually decriminalizing hard drugs so that users could more easily get help, and drug rates have since plummeted.

For some alcoholics, finding a way to quit can be a long and frustrating journey. Baclofen is a new drug in France that has previously been used to treat Multiple Sclerosis but is now being used to 'cure alcoholics'.