THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!
More than 3,000 people died of drug overdoses in Los Angeles County alone in 2022 and last October, Hollywood actor Matthew Perry, of “Friends” fame, became one of the latest overdose victims when he accidentally died of acute effects of ketamine at his Los Angeles home.
Perry’s story reminds us that no one is immune to drug overdoses, but who are the most vulnerable in LA County and why? How do poverty, homelessness and mental health issues intersect with addiction to create a deadly “perfect storm” for so many? To find out, we spoke to Nyabingi Kuti, director of the LA Harm Reduction Network, which aims to expand and enhance access to substance use disorder treatment for L.A. County and especially Skid Row. This is the first episode in a two-part series.
SHOW NOTES
WE DISCUSS
Tell us about the LA Harm Reduction Network.
“We’ve been around about four years. The mission is to improve and enhance access to opioid addiction treatment in particular, and substance use disorder treatment in general …
“It came about as a result of working for Tarzana Treatment Centers and the Drug Policy Alliance and seeing the huge gaps in treatment and the high relapse rates for people that were in treatment.” – Nyabingi Kuti
In 2022, a shocking eight people per day died from overdoses in Los Angeles County. What factors have contributed to this public health crisis?
“The county has had poor results in addiction treatment for a long time … exacerbated by homelessness and the fentanyl epidemic which … morphed from the prescription opioid pill epidemic that was caused by Purdue Pharma and Oxycontin…
“It’s like a perfect storm. You know, poverty, homelessness, mental illness, even a person’s physical health. Because you know, these opioids are painkillers and a lot of people have gotten addicted to fentanyl as a result of using painkillers, prescription painkillers …” – Nyabingi Kuti
What’s behind the high numbers of overdose deaths on Skid Row, a .4 square mile area in downtown Los Angeles with one of the largest populations of unhoused people in the United States?
“Well, what I’m hearing is a lack of residential beds there (on Skid Row) and the issue of quality of treatment that I mentioned. Many people that have died from overdoses have been in treatment multiple times. You know, if you listen to people like (Matthew) Perry and other celebrities that have overdosed and died, they’ve been in treatment before and sometimes over 10 times.
“So that makes you wonder … why isn’t treatment working? Why are people reluctant to go to treatment?
“And it’s also a mental health component … Addiction is a mental health disorder, but some people have even more mental health issues than just addiction. You know, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, and methamphetamines are being mixed with fentanyl. And it’s just, like I said, just a perfect storm …” – Nyabingi Kuti
Helpful Links
What is harm reduction?, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
‘An alcoholic from the age of 14’: Matthew Perry’s troubled life and foreshadowed death, The Guardian
Fentanyl now deadliest drug in LA County, linked to more than half of all fatal overdoses, ABC 7 News
Sacklers Sacked But Purdue Still Caused Opioid Epidemic, Missouri Medicine, National Library of Medicine
What led to the opioid crisis—and how to fix it, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Shocking scenes in Los Angeles as homeless smoke drugs on the streets, tents litter the downtown area and hawkers sell stolen goods, The Daily Mail
Meet the Skid Row Fixer, LA Downtown News
Episode Transcript
Read the full episode transcript.
Biography: Nyabingi Kuti
Nyabingi Kuti is the director of the LA Harm Reduction Network with the goal to expand and enhance access to substance use disorder treatment for LA County in general and Skid Row in particular.
He has done policy advocacy for Tarzana Treatment Centers, The Drug Policy Alliance, The LA County Department of Mental Health and other organizations.
He also has done radio and public presentations on the drug overdose epidemic, expanding access to addiction treatment for the homeless and
reentry community, and community violence.
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