Harm Reduction and Treatment Among People at High Risk of Overdose.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Addiction Medicine
• Sociology

Background:

• Overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids and stimulants are increasing, particularly in minority communities.
• Access to harm reduction and treatment services for diverse populations of people who use drugs remains poorly understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize access to and barriers for harm reduction and treatment services.
• To examine these services within a racially and ethnically diverse population of drug users.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted with 1240 adults who used cocaine, methamphetamine, or opioids in the past 30 days.
• Participants were recruited from social service, harm reduction, and treatment organizations in Wisconsin, Michigan, and New Jersey.
• Data collected included drug use patterns, overdose history, social risk factors, harm reduction service use, and barriers to access.

Main Results:

• Among polysubstance users, 66.6% used multiple drug types, and 28.1% experienced an overdose in the prior year.
• Individuals with a prior-year overdose were more likely to possess naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and use harm reduction services.
• Stimulant-only users showed significantly lower possession rates of naloxone and fentanyl test strips compared to opioid-only and polysubstance users.

Conclusions:

• Findings indicate low utilization of harm reduction and treatment services among individuals who primarily use stimulants.
• Disparities in access to harm reduction tools like naloxone and fentanyl test strips were observed among stimulant users.
• Increased communication about the importance of harm reduction and treatment services is recommended to improve uptake, especially given the evolving drug supply.