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With the wreckage of addiction all around us, society needs a shift
Aug. 11, 2023 at 2:13 pm
Charnay DuCrest is a health promotion coordinator with the
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, where she assists people
struggling with addiction. (Courtesy of Charnay DuCrest)

Charnay DuCrest is a health promotion coordinator with the Tacoma-Pierce
County Health Department, where she assists people struggling with
addiction. (Courtesy of Charnay DuCrest)
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Carlton Winfrey By Carlton Winfrey
Seattle Times Opinion columnist
Charnay DuCrest is living her best life.

The Tacoma professional has a rewarding career helping people beat drug
addiction. She’s a mother, and will pursue her master’s degree this fall.

It’s a life that her parents, a teacher and a musician, had hoped for
her at birth. But the hopes quickly fell into ruin by a wrecking ball
called opioid addiction.

Before her life spiraled out of control, DuCrest ran track and sang in
the choir at Gonzaga Prep in Spokane. Less than 10 years later she would
find herself going from tents to dingy hotels to homelessness,
relationship to relationship, arrests, lying and stealing — even from
her parents — all to feed a powerful addiction.

Opioid addiction and overdose is a national and local crisis, one that
local health care workers, policymakers and educators need to
aggressively tackle. But it will take time, a lot of money and a
cultural shift before society treats this epidemic not like a temporary
problem, but a killer of families, lives and potential.

How serious is it?

There were 1,001 overdose deaths in King County in 2022 and the record
is on track to be broken this year with 800 overdoses as of Tuesday,
mostly from fentanyl. By the end of 2024, more people will have died of
opioid overdose in King County in the previous three years than were
killed in the attack of Sept. 11, 2001.

Already, in just seven months of this year, more lives have ended by
fentanyl overdose in King County alone than by gun violence statewide in
2021 and 2022 combined.

Before the judgment starts, these lives were not the “dregs of society.”
They were young people experimenting; 20-somethings taking what they
thought was a prescribed painkiller from a “friend” only for their
families to discover after their deaths it was fentanyl; and those
struggling for years with addiction like Charnay DuCrest.

Life before addiction
To talk to 37-year old DuCrest today, few clues hint at a life once
debased by opioids.

Like many who struggled with addiction, DuCrest’s substance abuse began
with alcohol as a teenager, a battle she saw her parents fight. Yet, she
managed to excel in cross-country and volleyball, even into her days at
Montana State University-Northern where she majored in premed. “I kind
of cruised through high school until college, where I had a penchant for
hanging out and partying,” DuCrest recalled. Heavy drinking led to
Alcoholics Anonymous at the urging of her father.

She discovered pain pills in college after breaking her leg.

“I had pills for three months in 2010 and when they quit giving them to
me I went straight to IV morphine. That lasted four months before it all
fell apart.”

She checked herself into the hospital for treatment only to test
positive for HIV.

“I left the hospital and went to get high,” she said, using her 401(k)
savings from a previous retail job.

Then came more morphine and Suboxone and then heroin.

She overdosed three times: once with a boyfriend who took her to the
hospital where she was revived; the second time a friend found her in
the bathroom with a needle stuck in her neck. “By this time my veins in
my arm were shot.” Her friend drove her to the hospital and dumped her
off at the front, where emergency personnel gave her Narcan.

The third OD happened when she and her husband were hanging out. She
told her husband afterward, “Man, that messed up my high. That’s all I
cared about, not the fact that I had just had an overdose in front of
him. But that being high was more important than being alive.”

Drugging interrupted
Many who advocate for lenient drug laws often say jail won’t fix the
problem, or that we can’t arrest our way out of addiction. But arrests
can interrupt a cycle of abuse and, when it comes to drugs like
fentanyl, an arrest can save a life.

I spent many years volunteering with Mariners Inn, a homeless shelter in
Michigan for men battling addiction. Their stories were heart-wrenching,
yet inspiring. They often ended with, “If I hadn’t been arrested, I
would have lost …” fill in the blank: My job. My friends. My family. My
life.

Getting arrested may work for some, but not all. The mere shock and
embarrassment can push some users to seek help. For others entry into
the legal system creates another set of problems, including a record
that can affect employment and housing.

The state Legislature this year clarified how law enforcement is to
intersect with public drug use and possession. Seattle Mayor Bruce
Harrell wants the City Council to adopt the state law that makes the
possession and public use of illegal drugs gross misdemeanors. He also
wants the police department to utilize referrals to treatment and
diversion programs as the preferred response but also be able to make
arrests when warranted.

DuCrest knows she’s one of the lucky ones. She said one of her arrests
for stealing from her parents — orchestrated by them as part of an
intervention — left her angry at the time.

“Being in jail really helped but also made me susceptible to overdose,”
said DuCrest, who earned a bachelor’s in communication and is now a
health promotion coordinator for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health
Department. “It does disrupt it and give you a chance to get help, but
criminalizing addiction is not a solution. People lose their stuff or
the place where they rent and become homeless.”

Erasing the stigma
About 90% of people with addiction never seek treatment mainly due to
fear of judgment and shame, according to James Apa, communications
director at Public Health — Seattle & King County. For any community to
get a handle on the epidemic, getting rid of that stigma is a must.

“The biggest thing we can do is have compassion for individuals who are
suffering from a disease that is ultimately fatal and destroys lives,”
said Sean Soth, director of Health Integration & Innovation for
Evergreen Treatment Services. “And understand it’s really difficult as a
human to shift how we behave and change our lives drastically. That’s
what we’re asking of people who use drugs. We assume that it is the
individual’s problem. That it’s a moral failure and we don’t want to
believe that it can be us or our kids that is impacted next.”

DuCrest credits Swedish Hospital and a Tacoma sober house for her recovery.

So looking back, what message would Charnay DuCrest of today have for
Charnay, the college student of years ago?

“Hold on. You’re going to have some rough times but it’s going to end up
really good. Everything I’ve gone through has made me the person I am.
And I love my life. So just hold on. It’ll be OK.”

Carlton Winfrey is a member of The Seattle Times editorial board. Email:
cwinfrey@seattletimes.com; Twitter: @CarltonWinfrey
View 12 Comments / 12 New

Comments include

I’m glad to see that DuCrest has come out of addiction and is doing well
now. This is what we all hope for. However, it is telling that she would
not tell her younger self to not use and abuse drugs.

We need to change our views related to legal and illegal drugs. The
risks are real.

The point where you want to turn to illegal drug use to feel better has
to be a milestone that triggers a turn to treatment. Hopefully people
get help before that, but that has to be a treatment milestone.
(Edited)

Many who advocate for lenient drug laws often say jail won’t fix the
problem, or that we can’t arrest our way out of addiction. But arrests
can interrupt a cycle of abuse and, when it comes to drugs like
fentanyl, an arrest can save a life.
Progressive leaders like Andrew Lewis, Constantine, Harrell disagree
with you. They made public use and possession or minimally enforced.
Constantine tolerates both on Metro and Sound Transit with zero
consequences.

"About 90% of people with addiction never seek treatment mainly due to
fear of judgment and shame, according to James Apa, communications
director at Public Health — Seattle & King County."

James, please cite the studies that have determined this is the reason
addicts won't accept treatment. We've experienced addiction in our
family, battled it for years. Never heard of or encountered this. The
pull of the drugs has always been the problem, along with those who
promote them to people seeking recovery.
Being stoned is easier than treatment. Plus progressive leaders
encourage use by providing hotel rooms and shacks to consume these
dangerous drugs with no requirement to successfully complete a treatment
program. Progressive leaders legalized, or dont enforce, public use or
possession taking away all consequences except death by OD (4/day in
Seattle).