Opioid Court aims to turn tide of addiction

Troy City Court and St. Mary’s Hospital in Troy are looking to combat the Rensselaer County opioid crisis with the installation of the area’s first Opioid Court. 

The court will allow defendants to obtain immediate help for their addiction after an arrest by connecting them with addiction service programs offered through St. Mary’s. 

The new court is apart of the New York Unified Court System’s push to address opioid addiction across the state, and is modeled after the popular Buffalo-based Opioid Court, which opened in May 2017. After seeing such success with the court system in the Buffalo area, similar courts have opened around the state, such as in the Bronx, Staten Island and Syracuse. 

Supervising City Court Judge Christopher Maier, Administrative Judge Thomas Breslin and Supervising County Court Judge Debra Young helped to bring the new Opioid Court to the Capital Region. 

“Opioid Court is basically set up as a stabilization to capture people where they might be the most receptive,” said Priscilla Reiff, admissions coordinator for Samaritan Hospital Addiction Services. Reiff helps oversee St. Mary’s involvement with the Opioid Court. Having these services to offer to addicts is a matter of “life and death,” she said. 

According to the county Health Department, 30 people in Rensselaer County died from opioid overdoses in 2017; 33 died in 2016. Nationally, drug-overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids increased by 45 percent between 2016 and 2017, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I’m very proud that my boss and I are people who think outside the box and acknowledge that traditional treatment isn’t working and will come up with other ways to engage (this population), Opioid Court being one of them,” Reiff said.

After an arrest, defendants are screened by the Troy Police to identify who may need assistance for addiction. Information gathered from the screening is then forwarded to the court and reviewed by Bonnie Hazard, resource coordinator for the Troy Regional Treatment Court. 

With consent from the defense counsel, Hazard conducts an interview with the defendant to determine if Opioid Court is an appropriate step. If found eligible, the defendant is referred to ambulatory detox at St. Mary’s.

Troy Police will escort defendants directly to St. Mary’s. If found eligible, defendants are able to receive suboxone, a common drug used to help addicts wean off of opioids and prevents users from obtaining a high.

“If you’re an opioid addict and you’re arrested, it’s basically do you want to go to jail and detox or would you like to go to St. Mary’s and detox with medication?” Reiff said.

To stay in Opioid Court, participants must attend ambulatory detox daily at St. Mary’s, where they can receive suboxone and attend counseling. Defendants must also report to court five days a week.

“I think at the beginning people need that added support and accountability to show up and see Judge Maier every day, to see us every day,” said Kristin Hansen, director of addiction services at St. Mary’s. “It’s going to help them be consistent, so when they’re two weeks into this, they’re like, ‘Okay this is going good. I’m on a good track here, maybe I can actually do this.’”

Hansen, who has worked in addiction services for St. Peter’s Health Partners for 18 years, has seen first-hand the impact of opioid addiction in the local community: “We have a young man who just left treatment (and) … he’s lost 21 friends to opioid addiction. He’s only 26 years old. To have already bury 21 friends, that’s very terrifying.”

“It’s heartbreaking,” Reiff added. “A lot of our patients are deceased.”

Both women are hopeful that the new Opioid Court will help change the stigma around drug addiction and provide a new way for addicts to obtain the help they need.

“Most of the crimes (defendants) are commiting are to support their habit,” Reiff said. “They’re not criminals, sociopaths or anything like that. Their behavior is driven by their addiction.”