ITHACA, NY – On Wednesday, Ithaca officials will certainly announce The Ithaca Strategy — a four pillared approach proposed to combat heroin addiction in the city. One of the four pillars of the brand-new drug policy is “Treatment.”
Ithaca’s existing drug treatment programs, says Mayor Svante Myrick, take an “abstinence only” approach.
“These programs assume that if you’re prepared to quit using drugs you’re prepared to white knuckle it, simply offer it all up,” Myrick said. “That works for some folks yet that doesn’t job for a lot of people.”
The treatment pillar of The Ithaca Strategy would certainly look to give medicated treatment for individuals looking to kick their addictions.
Ithaca’s brand-new drug Strategy calls for supervised injection sites, various other bold measures
This involves points adore methadone and suboxone. These are legal — albeit tightly controlled — opioids which guidance addicts wean off of heroin addiction by assisting them fight their desires and withdrawal symptoms while remaining functional in their day-to-day lives.
Methadone and suboxone have actually themselves been the subjects of some criticism and controversy, yet The Ithaca Strategy would certainly go a step further, potentially introducing heroin assisted therapy to the city’s treatment options.
In short, heroin assisted therapy allows an addict to grab heroin from a doctor and use it under supervision, similar to prescribed medication.
“The pointer behind it is that for some individuals heroin is going to be the only thing that allows them to go on to function so they can easily grab various other treatment and eventually wean themselves off the drug,” said Myrick. He noted that this avenue of treatment would certainly only be reserved for extreme cases.
For a a lot more detailed breakdown of just what heroin assisted therapy, read our post on the “Harm Reduction” pillar.
Ithaca Plan: Harm reduction pillar calls for access to heroin, safe usage locations
Currently, the nearest place that an addict can easily grab a dose of methadone is Syracuse. Due to the fact that the drug is so tightly controlled, only single doses are offered at a time. This means people that wish to pursue that path of treatment should make the two-plus hour round journey to Syracuse every day.
“We have actually some individuals whose treatment is paid for by medicaid. So medicaid is paying for a cab ride for them to Syracuse every day, which is nuts,” said Myrick.
Additionally, Myrick points out, this leads to a difficult choice for the addict every day: to make the journey and, if their treatment isn’t covered, pay for an expensive dose of methadone — or locate a dealer in Ithaca to grab a faster and cheaper fix.
As for why the city hasn’t pursued methadone or suboxone treatments already, Myrick echoed the theory put forth by Bill Rusen, CEO of Cayuga Addiction Recovery Services. In an interview along with the the Ithaca Journal, Rusen said the stigma about detoxing and heroin use in general were major deterrents.
“I believe there’s much less of a stigma now, now that a lot more individuals know folks that are struggling along with heroin addiction, I believe a lot more individuals see why we reason that type of medicated treatment,” Myrick said.
Myrick said that talking along with Cayuga Medical Focus staff and various other medical professionals revealed simply exactly how taxing treating addicts could be, both emotionally for the staff and financially for the healthcare system.
“just what we heard from doctors and nurses is, ‘We’ve got individuals coming in the emergency room either along with horrific injuries or infections they’ve let go on too long, we have to preserve them in the hospital for weeks. In the meantime, while they’re coming down, they are abusive, manipulative, several of them become violent, some become ill,'” Myrick said.
In some cases, addicts end up making frequent return trips to the emergency room for addiction-related injuries and illnesses.
“They pulled these records and said that 13 or 14 individuals cost them $400,000 — the same 13 or 14 people. That’s a lot of wasted resources, that’s a lot of nights in a bed in a hospital that could be used by someone else,” Myrick said.
Medicated solutions, possibly including heroin assisted therapy, could give medical staff a method to steer clear of the bodily and emotional withdrawal symptoms so they could treat the immediate, potentially life-threatening problem.
Such treatments could additionally present opportunities to set addicts on a healthier path, Myrick suggests.
An addict that isn’t focused on getting his or her next fix is a lot more most likely to be receptive to taking care of their various other needs. Furthermore, joining a hospital setting very compared to on the street gives them access to resources and services to guidance them if they wish to grab clean.
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