COUNTY MIGHT TRY METHADONE TREATMENT TO HELP CURB DRUG USE

Santa Fe County is considering a program to supply inmates with
methadone, a drug used to treat heroin addicts.

The jail might become one of the first in the nation to start inmates
on the prescription medicine that staves off withdrawal and can help
addicts break away from illegal drugs.

Many correctional institutions allow methadone providers to treat
inmates who are already taking the drug.

"You can't arrest this problem away, and you can't make people get
help. People are dying. There are all of these issues," explained
Philip Fuity, director of the Health Department's Harm Reduction
Program, which is working with the county on the methadone project.
"In jails and prisons, people are looking for solutions."

Fuity said opiate-replacement therapy involves giving legal medicine
- -- methadone or a similar drug, bubrenorphine -- to an individual in
regulated doses daily. The drugs stabilize the part of the brain that
releases endorphins, a bodily function that is usually stunted by
sustained heroin use. They also allow a user to participate in society again.

"What happens is, the more somebody gets involved in illicit-drug
use, the more and more they become disenfranchised from society as a
whole," he said, noting that addicts sometimes don't seek medical
care or social services because they are treated like criminals. "If
you go to replacement therapy, that automatically reconnects that
person with services so they are not just getting a drink of medicine
and going away. They have to start counseling, and there are a
million other services they can access."

The Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center is already
working with the Health Department on a program to increase jailhouse
methadone distribution through a private company. Fuity said that
program will likely begin this month.

But not everyone favors opiate-replacement therapy.

"Heroin is one of the toughest (drugs) to kick, and there is a lot of
controversy around it," said Yolanda Briscoe, director of the Santa
Fe Recovery Center, which does not offer the treatment. "We have
clinicians that think it is just replacing one drug for another, and
we have some that say, 'Let's do it because it's that or death.' "

Corrections Department Director Gregg Parrish said he wants Health
Department services to be available at the jail, but he will talk
with county officials before deciding whether opiate-replacement is
appropriate there. The department has already trained some guards and
medical personnel to use Narcan, an injection that can keep someone
from dying during a heroin overdose.

Parrish said one issue to consider is whether methadone distribution
would put an additional burden on the jail's already-taxed medical
unit. Dr. Laura Kay, the health-care administrator, said nurses now
deliver some kind of medication on a daily basis to about 60 percent of inmates.