The Oregon County Detachment program offers incentives to encourage drug users to remain with treatment

In Claatsop county, the seagulls slip and tremble in the sky while visitors and residents walk along the wind beaches in the Pacific Ocean. The false pins and the scary tips put the landscape.

Centers of the population of the county – Astoria to the north and on the coast further south – are tourist destinations, especially in summer. But the county is also at home Homeless problemwith one of the largest per capita homeless rates People in the state.

Drugs It has long been a problem in the county, affecting many people. These include fishermen and workers in the wood industry that could take analgesics for injury and become addicted, eventually looking for illicit drugs. Before Fentanil, methamphetamine dominated and were often used by some in the fishing industry to stay awake while working long on boats.

Then Fentanil arrived. The hospitals in the county recorded 132 visits to emergency rooms for drug overdoses in 2023, increasing from 98 in 2019, state data.

Fifteen people died due to drug overdoses in the county in 2023, almost twice as many as five years ago, and two -thirds were overdoses related to opioids. There was also a peak of opioid overdoses at national level, by 280 in 2019 it increased to 1,300 in 2023.

In order to address the drug problem, Claatsop County was engaged in an experiment that runs from House invoice 4002 It passed last year. The parliamentarians offered the counties – and financing – to develop voluntary deviation programs that determine drug users willing in treatment and other services and away from prison. The law gives each county the flexibility to establish their programs and requirements.

Seattle has a similar system, and now Oregon is trying to recriminalize low possession last year, in a new attempt to address drug epidemic.

In Claatsop county, one of the 28 counties with a deviation program, the program takes three months and includes group therapy sessions and modest incentives to participate.

Small cash deposits in the county have maintained Maysym Derevianko motivated. The inhabitant of Astoria, 45, is among the first people who successfully complement the program of Claatsop county.

He said that the money, although not a large sum, have a symbolic significance.

“It shows you that they really want to be better, to live a better life,” he said.

Became addicted after a work accident two years ago. While he was on a crab boat, he slipped and fell and broke his leg. He needed five surgery and suffered extraordinary pain. As he recovered, methamphetamine helped him work, he said.

But at the end of September, he was arrested after his car crashed, and an officer found a metth pipe in his pocket. As a result, he is facing a drug tax for crime – or a deviation.

He chose to enter the deviation program led by Plathsop Behavioral Healthcare, the Community Community Health Provider.

Rick Martinez, a program manager for the recovery services team from Plansop Behavioral Healthcare, said the provider used to deal with a lot of people, such as Derevianko, dependent on Meth, but almost overnight, exploded the use of fentanel.

“We started to see numbers that were clearly only Fentanil and we started to hear about people who used five pills, 10 pills and then there was 50 pills a day,” said Martinez.

Martinez said that the changing nature of workers to inform the drug market to be looking for changes. Fentanil pills, for some, are no longer strong enough to satisfy their lusts and are based on fentanil powder.

“I know it sounds almost crazy in a way, but when someone goes beyond a substance, people will rush to where they get it, because I know this is stronger,” said Martinez. “When I hear someone overdose for a certain supply, they want this offer.”

“Smile on his face”

Plathsop Behavioral Healthcare has hired an equal information worker, who has fought with addiction and is now in recovery to receive calls from law enforcement in potential deviation cases. Other employees also in recovery, are on calls with rotary exchanges, making someone available from 8:00 to 23 pm seven days a week.

If the police call, the reporting of a person found with drugs and an information worker is available, goes immediately to the person – at a parking lot, on the side of a road or elsewhere – and meet them before the police go to enter the deviation program. Participants enter the programs voluntarily and, if graduated, delete their records.

If the information worker is gone to another call or the location is too far away, the police cites the person and have 72 hours to enter the deviation program on his own.

At that time, information workers also try to contact them and encourage them to obtain an evaluation and start the program.

Martinez said that the first case of deviation of the county was a man in Warrenton, when the police cleaned a homeless camp. Compared to the choice to go into deviation or to receive an accusation of drug holding in court with the possibility of probation or prison, he opted for the first.

The man had just finished probation and wanted to stay outside the judicial system, Martinez said.

Another early hook that helped that customer: a free mobile phone when it entered the program, an instrument that helped the supplier stay with it.

“The counselor saw him in the parking lot listening to music on his phone, with a smile on his face,” Martinez said.

Claatsop county officials say that the modest incentives they offer, such as a mobile phone or $ 50 when they start the program, help motivate participants to stay in the program and enroll in group sessions.

After they are evaluated and receive a treatment plan, I get another $ 25. From there, they get $ 10 a week for each group therapy session. The meetings provide people with a place to share their stories and talk about their challenges and steps for recovery. And may include education in life skills, such as financial management.

The money is charged on a cash application that makes the mobile phones decrease with a notification when the financing is charged. The purpose is to replace the pleasure I receive from drugs.

“The reward must be equal or greater than the effects they obtain from the substance,” said Martinez. “Everything is to hit the pleasure part of the brain. We send the money. It gives them a notification on the phone that rely. “

Program officials also have raffles for practical articles, such as toothbrushes or socks and try to meet other needs, such as people to start with drugs.

The cases are followed by Christina Schulz, coordinator of the deviation program at the office of the Sheriff of Claatsop County. Four people are in the program and are asked to stay in it for 90 days. Two successfully finished the program. If they do, they will no longer be accused of drug holding.

If he gives up, this information is sent to the Police Agency who wrote the citation and office of the district lawyer for a possible criminal prosecution.

At this time, the Police in PlathSop County do not make a large scale arrests: only 17 people were arrested from September 1, when the law put the new punishment for crimes, state data shows. Some of these people are not eligible for deviation, because they face other accusations or have guarantees for previous cases.

For those who qualify, the deadline to obtain an evaluation within 72 hours is intended to motivate a quick decision.

“We want to receive them while it is still fresh in their minds that they want to do this,” Schulz said. “They want to clean.”

Years of anxiety

Not everyone is likely to opt for deviation.

Michael, 45, who asked for his name to be used because he is trying to rebuild his life, tries to recover from a fentanel addiction. Michael lives in a camp designated by the city for the homeless in the coast, near a recycling center.

Michael said he was injured in Tillamook County during an operating accident in 2010. His addiction started with Oxycodone, which a doctor prescribed for work -related injuries.

The judicial records support other details of his account, such as his 2014 conviction on the delivery of a controlled substance, after giving an oxycodone pill on which another person was prescribed.

Later it was directed to Fentanil, which was easy to obtain on the streets.

He doubts that the deviation program of the county helps him, even if this was an option.

But others, such as Derevianko, Astoria Crabber, remain hopeful for a new chapter in their lives. He was depressed after the accident and the pain of battle. The car accident and arrest were sufficient to make him realize that he needs help.

And wanted to recover and return to work.

He said that peer workers related to his struggles and group therapy helped him to recover. He trusted in peer workers. They showed him that a future without Meth was possible.

For the Oregonians who are fighting drugs, Derevianko said that participating in group therapy can remind them that they are not alone in their challenges. For those who take into account the entry into the program, he recommends to approach the situation with opening.

“Don’t get angry,” he said. “Just relax and go with her. Everyone is just ordinary people like you. “

– Ben Botkin, Oregon Capital Chronicle

Botkin produced this story as a 2024 USC Annenberg Center for Fellow National and Logod’s health journalism.

The chronicle of Oregon capitalFounded in 2021, it is a non -profit news organization that focuses on the government, Oregon state policy.