Tag Archives: addiction

Buprenorphine withdrawal medicine now standard issue for Seattle Fire

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The City of Seattle isn’t alone. First responders in Madison, Wisconsin have started carrying buprenorphine, too (Image: City of Madison)

The Seattle Fire Department says it is making buprenorphine, a powerful opioid that research shows can help stabilize drug users and provide short-term relief from withdrawal symptoms, available for deployment by all of its emergency crews.

CHS reported here earlier this year on the department’s pilot of the drug with Seattle’s Health 99 overdose response team.

When paired with Narcan’s overdose reversal properties or when administered alone, buprenorphine allows the first responders “to better engage in conversations around treatment, recovery, and social services,” the city said earlier this year. Continue reading →

SODA and SOAP — Seattle City Council approves return of exclusion zones including new Capitol Hill ‘Stay out of Drug Area’

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The Harvard Market shopping center which has wrestled with increasing challenges around drug crimes at the corner of Broadway and Pike is within the new Capitol Hill SODA borders

Capitol Hill will have a new “Stay out of Drug Area” covering the neighborhoods around Capitol Hill Station and Cal Anderson Park and Seattle will re-implement exclusion laws hoped to throttle drug and prostitution-related crimes in new zones across the city.

In a five hour session Tuesday filled mostly with public testimony against the laws and with a phalanx of security and police officers called in to quell any disruptive protest in chambers, the Seattle City Council voted to approve the twin bills re-creating the city’s SODA and “Stay out of Area Prostitution” zones — regulations repealed by the council only four years ago after years of criticism over their ineffectiveness and dangerous implications for the victims of sex work-related crime they were supposed to be helping.

The new zones will be located on Capitol Hill, and in the International District, Belltown, the University District, and Pioneer Square with the new SOAP zone covering Aurora. More could be added.

Bob Kettle, chair of the council’s public safety committee, said Tuesday night after the successful vote that this new push for SODA and SOAP will be different than the city’s past attempts at exclusion zones. “This legislation uses a data driven approach to achieve the goals in our Strategic Framework plan,” Kettle said. “I am appreciative for the support our legislation has received from the community and my colleagues, and I am grateful for the opportunity to make Seattle safer.”

Under the legislation passed Tuesday, a designation will allow a judge to bar drug or prostitution law offenders busted in a zone from reentering the area for up to two years. A SODA or SOAP order can also be imposed as a condition of release from jail. Violating an order will become a new gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine. Continue reading →

Proposal for new Seattle ‘Stay out of Drug Areas’ including Capitol Hill zone moves forward

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The Seattle City Council’s public safety committee Tuesday approved a plan to create new exclusion zones in Seattle targeting drug related crime and prostitution in multiple areas of the city including a new zone on Capitol Hill.

The legislation will now go to the full council for a final vote expected next week.

CHS reported here on District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth’s addition of a new Capitol Hill “Stay out of Drug Area” stretching from Harvard to 11th Ave including Cal Anderson Park to the proposal.

The committee approved Hollingsworth’s amendment along with proposals to add four more zones in Belltown, Pioneer Square, the International District, and the University District along with the legislation calling for new zones downtown and along Aurora hoped to curb prostitution-related crimes. Continue reading →

$6.5M deal for trio of Capitol Hill transitional housing apartment buildings part of plans for new DESC facility — UPDATE

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Thanks to CHS reader Silver for the picture

The $6.5 million sale of three old apartment buildings on Belmont Ave by Seattle transitional housing provider Pioneer Human Services is part of plans for a new Capitol Hill facility by the Downtown Emergency Service Center, CHS has learned.

A spokesperson for Pioneer confirmed details of the July sale of the Granberg, Benson, and Del Prado buildings and says the DESC is planning a new facility for the parcels home to the more than 110-year-old apartment buildings that have been part of the Pioneer holdings in the neighborhood since the 1990s.

Pioneer says the buildings required either an extensive overhaul or demolition and redevelopment.

“Although we recognize that housing is a vital need for our clients, Pioneer’s mission is about more than just providing a roof. It is about providing a safe, therapeutic environment that promotes a healthy community and empowers justice-involved individuals to live safe, healthy, productive lives,” the spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, the three Belmont facilities did not live up to our standards today as they either needed major renovations or complete destruction with a new facility built.” Continue reading →

Pike/Pine safety plan? ‘Reinvigorating’ Cal Anderson Park, more cops, neighborhood ambassadors, and catenary lights

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Catenary lights above Nagle (Image: @blitzurbanism)

With reporting by Nova Berger, CHS Intern

District 3 representative Joy Hollingsworth says a mix of safety initiatives, increased police presence, support for local businesses, cleaning up the neighborhood, and more resources to help with people struggling with mental health, addiction, and homelessness are needed to fully address safety concerns in Pike/Pine.

“I’m embarrassed about what’s been going on in the neighborhood,” Hollingsworth said Thursday in a meeting with Capitol Hill business representatives organized by the Greater Seattle Business Association that followed a neighborhood tour this spring that gave Hollingsworth and officials from Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office and the East Precinct a first-hand look at the challenges neighborhood business and property owners say are the result of open drug dealing and drug use and street disorder in the area surrounding Cal Anderson Park and the Broadway and Pike QFC.

A man had just “dropped trow right in the street” in front of her on the way to the meeting with Hollingsworth, one business owner complained.

The situation around Broadway and Pike and on the edges of Cal Anderson needs emergency attention, attendees at Thursday’s session agreed but they and Hollingsworth acknowledged that even issues as seemingly simple as providing public restrooms are not easy in present day Seattle. Cal Anderson’s bathroom is typically busted or locked — or locked and busted — and chemical toilets in the area are quickly trashed. During the April public safety tour, one was set on fire.

Business representatives at Thursday’s meeting said problems around the area are starting to stack up. Continue reading →

Seattle’s Health 99 overdose response team now carrying buprenorphine, a drug hoped to help overcome the pains of withdrawal

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The City of Seattle isn’t alone. First responders in Madison, Wisconsin just started carrying buprenorphine, too (Image: City of Madison)

The city’s first responders are testing what could be a powerful tool in keeping more people from dying of drug overdoses in Seattle. City officials say Seattle’s Health 99 overdose response team formed last year is now carrying buprenorphine, a powerful opioid that research shows can help stabilize drug users and provide short-term relief from withdrawal symptoms.

“This new pilot program will allow our Seattle Fire Department paramedics to administer this highly effective and evidence-backed medication that quickly stabilizes people suffering from opioid use disorder, creating a window where services are more likely to be accepted and reducing the strain on our city’s emergency rooms,” Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement.

When paired with Narcan’s overdose reversal properties or when administered alone, the addition of buprenorphine to Health 99’s arsenal could be an important step in addressing addiction beyond the team’s life-saving responses. The drug allows the first responders “to better engage in conversations around treatment, recovery, and social services,” the city says. Continue reading →

Mayor to launch series of public safety forums to focus on Seattle’s ‘top issue’

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The CARE car — Seattle leaders hope to grow the city’s still tiny Community Assisted Response and Engagement effort (Image: City of Seattle)

Seattle leaders including Mayor Bruce Harrell and the new members of the Seattle City Council have promised a new focus on public safety in the city. Thursday night, Harrell will begin an initiative to address crime and street disorder in Seattle with a series of forums including meetings in each of the Seattle Police Department’s five precincts where the mayor says he is inviting the public to hear “his vision for creating a safer Seattle.”

“Public safety is not just our first charter responsibility as a City, it is the top issue for our community today. I look forward to meeting with neighbors to hear their concerns and ideas, and to share the actions we are taking,” Harrell said in Tuesday’s announcement of the Thursday night forum.

It’s not clear why the Harrell administration provided only a few days notice on the forum. In-person attendance will require registration. The forum will also be streamed live by the city.

Harrell said this week’s session will be followed by additional forums held across the city, one in each of SPD’s five precincts including the East Precinct covering Capitol Hill and the Central District. Continue reading →

King County adding treatment facilities, relaunching Seattle sobering center to take on fentanyl crisis

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A fatal overdose in Cal Anderson (Image: CHS)

At 10:30 AM on Monday, the Seattle Fire Department responded to a reported overdose in a Boylston Ave apartment. The city’s fire chief says his department is responding to an average of 15 drug overdoses a day driven by a surge in fentanyl use.

Officials this week say King County is launching a new “multi-part strategy across five priority areas” to address the crisis beginning this year that will include a new residential treatment center plus five new Crisis Care Centers paid for by the $1.25 billion property levy approved by voters last year along with new initiatives to increase access to overdose antidotes and drug testing.

Previously shuttered services are also being restarted including the reopening of the county’s sobering center that provides a desperately needed facility for people suffering from addiction and heavy drug or alcohol use.

“Substance use disorder is complex, and there is not one single cause, nor one simple solution. That’s why King County is connecting people to treatment and lifesaving interventions that are proven to work, and clear paths to recovery for all,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said in a statement. “The increasingly dangerous drug supply across the state and nation, dominated by fentanyl, is contributing to a devastating increase in deaths. There is so much more to do, which is why King County is also working upstream to help prevent substance use disorder, inform and educate the community, elevate early intervention strategies, and provide services and treatment for anyone who needs it.”

The investments range from the new facilities to resources already put in place like the county’s buprenorphine prescription hotline that is staffed 24 hours a day to help people get access to the drug used as a safer replacement in the treatment of opioid dependence.

Five Priorities for Action to Prevent Overdoses in King County in 2024

Priority 1: Treatment and community-based, recovery-focused care for all. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill not included in launch of Seattle’s ‘Dual dispatch’ pilot pairing social workers with police on low priority crisis and ‘welfare check’ calls

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Seattle’s first team of CARE “Dual Dispatch” responders (Image: City of Seattle)

Seattle has launched its pilot pairing social workers with cops responding to day-to-day mental health and drug crisis 911 calls but, for now, there won’t be any “dual dispatch” responses on Capitol Hill.

Mayor Bruce Harrell announced the start of service this week in the $1.5 million pilot hoped to grow into a “third public safety department” joining police and firefighters in protecting the city with welfare checks and help for people suffering mental crisis and addiction.

Its initial focus will be downtown, “including the Chinatown-International District and SODO,” operating from 11 AM to 11 PM, “a schedule that matches where and when the most frequent calls related to mental health crisis occur,” the city says. Continue reading →

Seattle Police begin city’s crackdown on public drug use with reported arrests, 13 ‘referred to the case managers’

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The Seattle Police Department says it started enforcement of the city’s new public drug use law with “enforcement operations” in two familiar crime hot spots this weekend — Little Saigon and the downtown core around 3rd and Pine.

SPD Chief Adrian Diaz said the operations were underway in the areas ave 12th Ave and South Jackson in the International District, and on 2nd 3rd near Pike and Pine downtown.

“This is not about arresting people,” Diaz said. “We want to make sure that people are taking advantage of services. Right now, we know 13 people were referred to the case managers and that’s really what’s important to us.” Continue reading →