Community members addicted to opioids can now get treatment on island for the first time.

Discovery Cove Recovery & Wellness Center started offering Suboxone Treatment for opiate addiction Saturday.

The treatment is a combination of both physical and psychological help previously only offered in the Lower 48 or elsewhere in Alaska. People seeking treatment previously had to pay for their flight and hotel to get Suboxone Treatment.

Opioids are narcotic drugs that can treat pain, but can also be highly addictive. Drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and codeine are examples of prescription opioids that can lead to dependence.

Ken McCarty, licensed marriage family therapist at Discovery Cove, said opioid dependency is a big issue in Kodiak.

“Your accomplished businessman or whoever could be someone that has this opiate problem,” McCarty said. “It’s not like your heroin addict shooting up in a scuzzy motel room, that’s not the scenario.”

He also said Kodiak’s fishing community is at risk for exposure to opioids.

“First of all, looking at the need, this is one of the largest fishing communities in the United States and fishing beats you up,” McCarty said. “So they have chronic pain, so they’ll take some kind of opiate to deal with the pain and they get addicted, or family member or friends start taking it and then they get addicted to it.”

Being addicted to opioids is harmful and presents a host of other issues.

“The addiction is real severe,” McCarty said. “You go through withdrawals. People often don’t want to go through withdrawals so they end up staying on it.”

McCarty said some patients who have started the program told him they have been buying Suboxone from dealers off the street. That’s not healthy and it is dangerous because mixing it with other medications can cause death.

“I’m hearing people are paying $25 to $50 a pill on the street,” McCarty said. “Of course they’re taking it and they don’t know how much they’re supposed to or all the different contraindications for other medications. It’s very dangerous.”

The program safely helps to get rid of the physical and psychological addiction to the drug.

“You really need to be under a physician’s care and you need to be in a treatment program,” McCarty said. “When you’re in a program just getting the Suboxone by itself, it’s shown that it doesn’t work because your dependency is both physical and psychological. There’s a major, mind-body relationship.”

Dr. Edward Zeff, psychiatrist at Discovery Cove, said it also is not going to help people kick their addiction.

“These people are using street drugs to maintain but not to detox,” Zeff said. “It’s not effective unless it’s in the program as far as beating the addiction. They can buy it (Suboxone) on the street, but they’re still addicted.”

Zeff also is a part of the program with McCarty. His role is prescribing and assessing the physical aspects of the addictions. McCarty applies the psychological treatment.

Zeff started treating three patients Saturday. The process for treatment has an induction process where the patient sees Dr. Zeff. He then makes visits back to the island to check on patients, or can use televideo with a patient. Patients also come in as groups for twice a week for 14 sessions and then twice a month.

Aside from the three patients currently in the program, there are 10 on a wait list. Zeff has an emergency waiver to prescribe the Suboxone. Although he’s been approved to prescribe the drug for treatment, the process for the full waiver has been delayed a few times since December.

Zeff took an 18-hour course to obtain the waiver, and can treat 30 patients in the first year. It then increases to 100 patients.

McCarty said another 10 patients may be referred to Discovery Cove from doctors in Anchorage, Wasilla or Kenai, and that more patients are sure to follow.

“When this came out that we’re doing this, the phone was ringing constantly with ‘when can we get in,’” McCarty said.

The Suboxone program lasts until the patient no longer needs the treatment. Zeff said having this treatment is great for the community.

“It’s giving people in Kodiak the opportunity to get the treatment here and not have to off island,” he said. “For those who can’t afford to even go off island, now they have something available.”

Mirror writer Louis Garcia can be reached via e-mail at lgarcia@kodiakdailymirror.com.

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