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Fentanyl in the Tri-Cities
How the fentanyl crisis is impacting the Tri-Cities and Eastern Washington.
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Kennewick, WA
Fentanyl is cheap and easy to get in the Tri-Cities, but access to a life-saving drug Narcan to reverse overdoses is expensive and first responders don’t know where they’re going to get their next doses.
Those are two of the biggest challenges the Tri-Cities faces in its fight against fentanyl, experts said at a roundtable this week.
Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., joined medical experts, law enforcement and community members for Monday’s discussion at the Benton Franklin Health District on the Tri-Cities fentanyl crisis.
The local experts told Cantwell that what they need most is changes in public policy to support their efforts and ways to build awareness.
The fentanyl crisis is more dire than ever with nearly every overdose in the Tri-Cities area now being attributed to the drug.
Between February 2022 and February 2023, Washington saw a 21.4% increase in overdose deaths, the single highest increase in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
In the Tri-Cities, 51 out of a record 65 overdose deaths in 2022, or 78%, were determined to be fentanyl related.
That number is closer to 90% so far this year, with 20 out of 23 overdose deaths through the end of May related to fentanyl, according to preliminary data from the coroner’s offices in Benton and Franklin counties.
Cantwell asked how lawmakers can help support efforts to move people into recovery, and also how she can guide public policy to combat an epidemic that is being fueled by pills as low as 60 cents each in some areas.
Flood of fentanyl
The Tri-Cities is being flooded with fentanyl.
A fentanyl pill costs about $3 in the Tri-Cities, and with more than 200,000 already seized this year, they’re pretty easy to get, Kennewick Police Commander Aaron Clem said.
Also, fentanyl is being mixed with other common opioids or passed off as prescription drugs such as Oxycodone, Xanax or Adderall.
Clem said the Tri-Cities Metro Drug Task Force believes those 200,000 pills are just the tip of the iceberg. The drugs are getting cheaper and easier to find.
“That’s just a fraction of the pills coming through town, Tri-Cities is a transnational distribution area,” Clem said. “And part of it, not all of it, but part of it is the cost, as you mentioned Senator. Our cost is $3 a pill which is down $2 from a year ago, which tends to mean there’s more supply in the area.”
Clem said what they need from lawmakers is to help stymie the access to fentanyl, hold drug traffickers and users committing other crimes accountable and get people into treatment.
He said it isn’t just the accountability around using drugs that is needed, but crimes such as theft, assault or worse committed in pursuit of the drug.
Not enough Narcan
Clem told the group the department is looking forward to the future recovery center opening, so that officers have options beyond just taking someone to jail, but they also need to ensure officers have reliable access to Naloxone, the generic name for Narcan.
A pilot program through the health district helped distribute 750 doses of Naloxone to first responders and community members, and it’s already saving lives.
Clem said now they need help ensuring that access to the critical medicine doesn’t dry up.
“There’s so many lives that can be saved by putting Naloxone permanently into the hands of patrol officers who are, 95% of the time, the first ones to arrive,” Clem said.
Pasco police Sgt. Brad Gregory agreed. He said a single patrol officer in his department has saved three people with Narcan in just the past two months.
“It seems like the deaths are about the same, but there are a lot more saves and that is key to us,” Gregory said.
The health district also is working with Pasco to track Narcan administrations by first responders through an app, which helps the health district track trends that otherwise would be overlooked.
A dose of Narcan can cost up to $80 dollars without insurance, which can make it cost prohibitive for people to put into their first aid kits.
The health district distributed all 750 free doses within just a few months this spring, leaving first responders and community members searching for a sustainable way to keep up the supply.
Pasco police are able to get doses from the city’s fire department, but that is grant funded and not a permanent solution.
Dr. John Matheson, emergency department medical director for Kadlec Regional Medical Center, said it would be a rare shift at work if he didn’t end up treating someone struggling with an opioid addiction.
“We know that fentanyl is the drug of choice, but it’s also the drug of consequence,” he said.
Participants told Cantwell that too often community members don’t want access to medications like Narcan in their neighborhoods, and it’s costing lives. Matheson said the key to getting Nacrcan distributed community-wide is by eliminating stigma and building buy-in.
Fentanyl is likely already in their neighborhood, they just don’t realize it, and when an overdose happens, access to Narcan can mean the difference between life and death.
“We appropriately try and get it into the hands of those who are at highest risk, but we really need to get it into the hands of everybody,” he said. “I try to carry some, I try to get my kids to carry it to school. We should have people who don’t even think they have a problem with opioid use. Everybody, ideally, should have access because a person who overdoses can’t save themselves.”
“So really getting it widespread, overcoming that stigma and having it available so that everybody has it in their first aid kits,” he said. “We have AEDs everywhere, why don’t we have Narcan centers?”
Success of drug court
Cantwell said her goal was to hear directly from the people dealing with the crisis. She is working to put together a statewide task force to face down the crisis.
“This number of deaths and the really inexpensive access to fentanyl is what’s really hurting us,” Cantwell said. “We’ve seen success in the past in fighting both meth and opioids with new tools, but I feel like we keep cutting the head off the dragon only for it to come back bigger and more menacing.”
Cantwell said the larger purpose of the forums was to prompt discussion about how to streamline services and get people where they need to go, as well as how to stop the flow of fentanyl into the community.
The Tri-Cities forum is the third she’s hosted recently, and the first in Eastern Washington. The others were in Pierce and Snohomish counties.
She praised the Tri-Cities’ Adult Drug Court, which serves Benton and Franklin counties, calling it a model that other cities can look to.
The program starts at the moment of arrest. When a suspect is booked into the jail they are assessed to see if they need immediate or long-term treatment. Ideal Option, which specializes in outpatient addiction treatment, has staff on hand at the jail to help get them started.
If it’s determined they’re a candidate for drug court, they’re then diverted away from the traditional criminal court to the specialty court run by Benton Franklin Superior Court Judge Joseph Burrowes.
Drug court defendants are required to participate in treatment plans, family and peer support groups, have weekly check-ins and more, in order to help them get on track to overcome their addiction.
“The challenge is for drug court, we’re currently at 50 participants in Benton and 20 in Franklin. ... The participants are generally high risk, high need, meaning they’re at the top of the list of needing recovery,” Burrowes said. “When we talk about meth was the main drug, it’s not (anymore). It’s fentanyl.”
The fentanyl crisis is so severe that Burrowes has had people in the program die to overdoses, and even recently had to have Narcan administered to a defendant who began showing signs of an overdose in court.
But when the program works, it does wonders for the lives of the defendants. The recidivism rate in Washington was around 40% in 2022, according to the Washington State Institute for Public Policy
Burrowes said their rate is around 20% within the first year and 30% within five years. He did note though that the court saw a spike in recidivism due to the pandemic.
The Adult Drug court recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, and Burrowes said if the funding was available, they could easily put another into place and have it at capacity.
“This county is stopping the revolving door,” Cantwell said. “That’s amazing.”
Regional recovery center
Kennewick City Manager Maria Mosley said the Tri-Cities has to look at the fentanyl crisis from a multi-pronged approach, and keep long-term viability of programs in mind.
“The importance of capital dollars and ongoing sustainable funding in our community is very important to us,” she said. “We need to make sure we have the capital dollars to build the center, but also that we have the dollars to sustain it.”
Construction on the regional behavioral health center could start by the end of summer. The current plan is to use a design-build approach, that lets work start immediately. That would enable the facility to open in phases, rather than a single opening date several years out.
The current priority for opening is a sobering center, which can be brought up and running by a recovery contractor in as few as six months.
The design-build and recovery center provider contracts are in progress, and expected to be presented to Benton County commissioners for approval in August.
The center will be paid for through a variety of sources including the public safety sales tax, opioid lawsuit settlement, grants and more.
Participants said they hope that Cantwell can help shift more federal support to projects like it.
This story was originally published July 18, 2023 5:00 AM.
