An intriguing experiment in drug therapy is quietly unfolding within the Bay Space. The concept? Rewarding methamphetamine customers who get clear with present playing cards to Burger King, Walmart and different shops.
Drug therapy suppliers in 4 Bay Space counties have tried the method because the first native program began in San Jose a yr in the past as a part of a statewide pilot. About 300 customers of meth and different stimulants have participated to date and acquired a mixed $23,500 for passing recurrently scheduled drug assessments. Lots of extra within the area are anticipated to offer it a shot this yr.
Right here’s the way it works: Contributors earn present card cash every time they cross a drug take a look at on a set schedule, a few times every week. They will cease at any time — however that additionally means they cease incomes rewards.
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The concept, although it might appear controversial to some, is rooted in a long time of scientific analysis exhibiting that rewards and encouragement assist stimulant customers enter restoration extra successfully than standard remedies alone, together with remedy. In 2021, a invoice to develop entry to this type of therapy handed the California Legislature with no opposition in both chamber.
It’s notoriously troublesome to deal with meth addictions, and relapse charges are very excessive. However on this robust local weather, money and prizes have been proven to have an enduring profit.
“This is easily the most effective treatment for people with stimulant use disorder,” mentioned Wesley Saver, coverage director for the San Francisco-based drug therapy nonprofit HealthRight 360. “It’s phenomenal.”
The nonprofit began its present card program a yr in the past in an workplace on Tully Street in San Jose. About 50 individuals have enrolled to date, Saver mentioned. Of these, 13 are working their method by this system, and 9 have accomplished the 24-week course.
The nonprofit Our Widespread Floor runs a virtually similar program in neighboring San Mateo County. Of the 28 individuals who enrolled in some unspecified time in the future since July, solely eight had dropped out early as of mid-February, the nonprofit’s knowledge exhibits.
Like a lot of the U.S., California has a meth drawback. About 5,170 individuals fatally overdosed on meth or one other stimulant in California throughout a 12-month interval ending in October 2024, narrowly trailing the demise price of fentanyl and different opioids. It’s additionally quite common for individuals to make use of opioids and meth on the identical time and die from a mix of the 2. Overdose charges have not too long ago fallen within the Bay Space.
In comparison with fentanyl customers, although, meth customers have fewer therapy choices.
Medicines resembling buprenorphine are extraordinarily efficient at lowering opioid overdose danger and smothering cravings. At present, California public well being specialists are attempting to enhance entry in hospitals, prisons and jails. However no such medicine exists for individuals hooked on meth or cocaine.
Jonathan Krawetz was one of many first individuals within the Bay Space to strive the brand new present card program. Final yr, workers requested him if he wished to enroll whereas dwelling at Our Widespread Floor’s supportive housing facility in Redwood Metropolis.
Krawetz, 51, entered restoration from meth and different medication greater than a yr in the past, he mentioned. The present card program was a bit of that success. He accomplished all 24 weeks and earned the utmost payout, which he used to purchase his nieces Halloween costumes from Walmart after which birthday presents from Marshalls.
California turned the primary state within the U.S. to realize approval from the federal authorities to pay for the therapy technique with Medicaid funds. That federal approval lasts by 2026. The state Division of Well being Care Providers pays for the present playing cards and units strict requirements for the applications.
“I want to stay sober,” Krawetz mentioned. “This not only reinforces that but gives me incentive to do it.”
He plans to discover a sober residence to name house and proceed making pottery at a neighborhood studio. It’s spectacular progress from just some years in the past when he went from dwelling in a lean-to in a San Jose park to jail. He was past assist, he mentioned.
“I’m bipolar, and I’m an addict,” Krawetz mentioned. “And when I use drugs, I go homeless. I’m just crazy. I’m not normally like that.”
Chris Morales, operations director at Our Widespread Floor, mentioned individuals are broadly having fun with this system, and it’s a cheap approach to complement different standard remedies.
Untreated meth addictions routinely land customers in costly emergency rooms or jails. In Santa Clara County, the place Krawetz was incarcerated for 5 months, it prices greater than $106,000 to jail somebody for a yr.
“There are far more tax dollars spent on someone actively in addiction,” Morales mentioned.
However as a result of relapse is “more the rule than the exception,” and meth customers have a tendency to steer unstable lives, Morales mentioned that success within the present card program doesn’t essentially imply that somebody completes the 24 weeks of drug testing.
“If it works for some, it’s a good thing,” he mentioned. “The more tools, the merrier.”
One onerous measure of success, although, is the variety of urine assessments that come again clear.
In San Jose, HealthRight 360 workers have performed 740 drug assessments on program individuals since February 2024. Of these, 94% confirmed damaging outcomes for meth or different stimulants, in accordance with Saver.
That determine is even greater, 96%, in Alameda County.
Drug therapy suppliers in 20 different California counties have rolled out present card applications within the final two years, together with in Contra Costa County and San Francisco, as a part of a pilot program.
Statewide, about 4,260 stimulant customers receiving Medi-Cal advantages enrolled in a present card program in 2024, in accordance with the state Division of Well being Care Providers.
At first look, the information regarded so promising that it made him suspicious, mentioned Thomas Freese, a scientific psychologist and director of built-in substance abuse applications at UCLA.
“Is it really as positive as it seems?” he mentioned. “And it seems that it is.”
Within the Bay Space, it’s too quickly to say if the present playing cards will assist meth customers keep in restoration for lengthy. In 2021, a scientific meta-analysis of the therapy by researchers discovered that it’s efficient for no less than a yr.
