Washington province gives gift cards to people to help get them out of the drug

When William Leicester Junior decided to enter a 12 -week program to treat drug use, he says he weighs only 68 lbs. The Seattle was, Wash. The resident uses heroin for 35 years, and recently methamfitamine.

He knew that something should change when he was accepted to the hospital due to kidney failure.

“I was not ready to stop for years until one day I said:” I have finished, I can’t do this anymore, “said Leicester, who lives in supportive housing in Seattle.

He is attributed to his case worker to place it on the path of the emergency management program – which is equivalent to refraining from stimulant drugs, such as methamphetamine or cocaine, with gift cards.

Gift cards twice a week

The program, which works in states including California, Montana and Washington, requests to give a sample of urine and take a quick test to see if they are using drugs or not in the past few days.

For every negative test, the patient gets a reward. In Washington State, and in Pleimothy in Seattle where Leicester lives, this reward comes in the form of gift cards.

“It is somewhat unusual because the way he works at Elson S. Floyd Medicine at Washington State University,” said Michael McDonnell, a professor at the Department of Community and Behavioral Health.

“If it shows that the person has not used (stimulants) in the past few days, they have a truly big celebration and this person gives a gift card,” McDonnell explained.

For every negative urine sample, which occurs twice a week, the patient gets a $ 12 gift card. The quantity gradually increases with each negative test. Participants can get a maximum US $ 599 per year.

If the patient is tested positively for drugs, they are not expelled from the program. Instead, the amount of their gift card decreases and they must build their way.

Gift cards can be used to buy groceries, clothes, or even electronics.

Its emergency management has Contracts of evidence that supports its success To help people stop or reduce stimulating drug use, according to McDunil.

The program is given outside the clinics, with the exception of Seattle where it works outside the Plemoths of a knife, a permanent non -profit organization for people who struggle with long -term homelessness. There, 40 people followed the program for more than a year.

In Pleimmouth, the goal of bringing the program is to go to people instead of going to an external clinic.

According to Alia Benz, director of the behavioral health program in Pleimoths, this is great.

“It was not only easy to get out of clinical preparation and pushing to housing.” But it works.

“We already have higher sharing rates and higher completion rates than clinical settings,” Benz said, referring to the initial data.

Another difference lies in the fact that in Pleimoth is a peer support factor that comes to the unit of the resident, which means that he sees it as a person who suffered from his addiction.

“I visited AA, to a lot of things like that, but see, I cannot get attached to anyone who was not where I was,” Leicester said, adding that he was a support factor in the housing unit he got to join the program.

Participation was not always easy. Leicester says he believes he could deceive the system, but he was surprised to adhere to it.

“Using (using drugs) thanks to the program.”

Evidence -based approach

The largest part of the Emergency Management Administration comes from contracts for searching for ancient warriors.

The veteran case department in the United States has implemented the program In 2011. But the positions – like displaying rewards like bribes – slowed their use for the general public.

Things turned when the excess dose epidemic became the public health crisis.

California was the first state to cover the emergency administration under Medicaid and “to assess the effectiveness of treatment on a large scale,” according to the Ministry of Health in California.

In 2021, the states of Montana and Washington began using the program widely for the disturbance of doping.

In Washington, 24 12 -week program clinics offer. Initial results showed that among more than 200 participants, about 70 percent had been involved and seen in its stimulant use, according to McDunil.

British Columbia also has some emergency management programs, although very limited.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said in a statement, “It is an important part of the chain of care to use materials,” a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

BC programs are managed by Vancouver Coastal Health and Fraser Health, and includes a 12 -week collective consulting program provided by Aids Vancouver. Most of them focus on the use of steroids.

The need for effective treatment programs has become more urgent in recent years, as the toxic drug crisis has increased.

Although fentanel and other opioids have topped the headlines since 2016 in Canada and North America as a whole, steroids are also present in an increasing rate of excess dose deaths. In Canada, steroids were found alongside opiates in 64 percent of toxic drug deaths in 2024.

During the same year in British Colombia, cocaine was discovered in 52 percent of excessive toxicology reports and methamphetamine was found in 43 percent.

Benz says the emergency administration gives people the opportunity to succeed in something.

“Many programs are everything or nothing, you should be 100 percent awake or you are not successful. This is not just an emergency management.”

Benz also witnessed the pride of some of the 40 participants in the Plymouth Pilot project for one year.

“I saw that changing people. Give them the opportunity to get $ 20 a week for someone who has no income to change life.”

Patients include more likely to finish

Although one may think financial rewards will not succeed well for more ventilation patients, McDONEL says they have proven to be a strong incentive regardless of income.

“I have doctors, lawyers and other people who are well financially compensated, but they are really desperate to stop using their materials … and they are driven by the idea that they are rewarded,” the researcher explained.

If there is anything, it is not distinguished people who put in the emergency management program.

“It is unlikely to end the program because they have many other things they deal with,” McDONEL said. He added, they may rely on doping to keep them awake for safety.

“It is dangerous to be homeless: someone may come and steal your belongings, and you may be attacked,” said McDONEL.

According to the Lester, his presence in Pleimoths for a six -year -old made him more likely to say yes to the program.

Although he has a low income, he says that incentives were less important than the accountability process and the presence of someone in his success.

He proudly said: “I can tell you that I feel better now than I felt in my whole life.”