Hurricanes drive addiction issues into public’s view
In preparations for Hurricane Irma, a needle exchange program in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood handed out extra syringes to heroin users. Others trying to break from the drug’s grasp picked up advance medication from methadone clinics.
Disasters cause stress, and stress can cause relapse for people struggling with addiction, whether their problem is alcohol, pills or heroin. Authorities planning for the devastating effects of hurricanes now factor in the heightened danger of relapse and overdose.
The problems of alcoholism and addiction become more public in a storm, said researcher Andrew Golub of the National Development and Research Institutes in New York, who studied illicit drug users in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
“During a storm, it becomes harder to hide and cope with one’s addiction in private,” Golub said.
Scientists learned from Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. Drug users took chances during storms, researchers found, avoiding evacuation to stay near their dealers or sharing needles with strangers, putting themselves in danger of HIV and hepatitis. Those in treatment missed doses of medications and went back to street drugs to avoid withdrawal sickness. During Sandy, clinics that lost power measured methadone by candlelight.
“Disasters like this interrupt treatment,” said Enrique Pouget, whose team interviewed 300 injection drug users in New York after the 2012 storm.
Methadone programs, highly regulated by the government, are required to have disaster emergency plans. The state of Florida granted methadone clinics discretion to provide up to five days of medication ahead of Hurricane Irma.
In Texas and Louisiana, some patients took home advance doses of methadone. Others received it in shelters or from alternative facilities.
Florida’s first needle exchange program faces its biggest challenge yet with Irma. This past week, Dr. Hansel Tookes and his team gave away a week’s supply of clean needles and overdose reversal kits, or Narcan.
“We want to make sure all of our people have Narcan so they can save lives and be first responders in the storm,” Tookes said of the 400 drug users who rely on his program. Drug users equipped with Narcan can save others who overdose.
Mark Kinzly, co-founder of the Texas Overdose Naxolone Initiative, said his group distributed around 500 kits to clinics along the Texas coast in the midst of Harvey cleanup. Storms can be disastrous because they interrupt routines and schedules, he said.