Overdose kits will save lives, benefit public

The state appears to be moving toward a kinder, gentler approach when it comes to the war on drugs.

A new state law that allows for the distribution of anti-overdose kits to drug users takes a significant step in that direction.

Rather than demonizing addicted drug users, implementing harm-reducing initiatives with steps toward treatment and rehabilitation is the humane way to go. Addressing drug addiction as a public health issue — as opposed to strictly a criminal one — is a wiser, more compassionate route.

The law, signed by Gov. David Ige in July, allows health care professionals to prescribe and administer anti-overdose medicine while indemnifying people who call 911 during an overdose from being prosecuted for possessing drugs or drug paraphernalia.

So under that law, the needle-exchange CHOW Project and University Health Partners of Hawai‘i have joined forces to hand out anti-overdose kits to Oahu drug users to try to keep opioid abusers alive.

State health officials say drug overdoses have led all other injury-related deaths since 2010 — more than car crashes, falls and drownings — which underscores the necessity of the life-saving program.

And addiction hits across the socio-economic spectrum, from homeless people, to famed actors like Phillip Seymour Hoffman, to world-champion surfers like Kauai’s Andy Irons.

In Hawaii, “the drug of choice” is heroin, said CHOW Project Executive Director Heather Lusk. That differs from the mainland, where opioids such as morphine, fentanyl, hydrocodone and OxyContin are more heavily abused.

Charles Morrison, 51, who is homeless in the Pali Highway area, recognizes the need for anti-overdose kits, after having seen six of his friends die as a result of overdose.

Morrison, who has been shooting heroin for the past 35 years, was among those who picked up a kit Monday.

“The best thing you can do is be alive,” he said.

The kits being distributed include two sterile syringes and 1 milliliter of a drug called naloxone, which, when injected, could save the life of someone abusing opioids.

The CHOW Project paid for the $40 kits and hopes to distribute 500 statewide by the end of the year and raise money to distribute more next year.

The nonprofit’s effort deserves support, as one link in a community chain helping people to pull out of a desperate lifestyle.

Lusk estimated that three-fourths of Hawaii’s opioid users are likely homeless — and that homeless people are nine times more likely to die of an opioid overdose than non-homeless users.

That’s a disturbing estimation that highlights the need for more Housing First initiatives in which homeless people are sheltered even while struggling with addiction and receive wraparound services to address their needs.

In Seattle, where officials are grappling with a heroin epidemic, a task force is recommending the creation of “community health-engagement locations” in King County to provide medical supervision for people using illegal drugs like heroin, which would be the first in the U.S., according to The Seattle Times.

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said he would support such centers if they reduce the negative impacts on neighborhoods.

Hawaii will need to track the progress of such programs and be open to other initiatives that address the public health concerns stemming from rampant opioid use.

The first step is saving lives through anti-overdose measures; the next is to help addicts achieve sobriety — and all citizens, not just drug users, benefit from that.