drug treatment

Mayor Bruce Harrell says the city will open a new space for people to recover and receive treatment for nearly 24 hours after they have overdosed on fentanyl or other drugs.

As overdose deaths in Washington state have skyrocketed, lawmakers like state Rep. Lauren Davis have scrambled to try and improve the drug treatment system.

Washington lawmakers are entering the final weeks of this year's legislative session, meaning time is running out to tackle big policy questions, and budget proposals are finally coming into public view.

Burst pipes caused issues across the region this week. But in one case, it delayed access to opioid use treatment, increasing the strain on a shrinking number of such facilities.

Cowlitz officials are discussing ending a tax that pays for mobile crisis units used by local police, mental health services in the jail, and programs like the local drug court.

Seattle's mayor and city attorney say they want to use a new state law to push people into treatment — but what happens when that's not available?

The "Blake" bill is supposed to push people into drug treatment. But the state can't say how many beds are available for them.

Since Oregon residents voted in 2020 to decriminalize hard drugs and dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars to treatment, few people have requested the services and the state has been slow to channel the funds. But Steve Allen, behavioral health director of the Oregon Health Authority, says a milestone has been reached.

Oregon officials and lawmakers say efforts to get millions of dollars in funding to treatment centers and related services as part of the state's pioneering drug decriminalization have been botched even as drug addictions and overdoses increase. Oregonians passed Ballot Measure 110 in 2020 decriminalizing possession of personal amounts of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs — the first in the nation to do so.

Treating addiction is expensive and patients often relapse. A new company is offering better results at a price that's lower in the long run — and clients get treatment right at home.