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Drug treatment center opens in Grants Pass Friday Jan 13, 2017 at 3:21 PM Jan 13, 2017 at 3:21 PM By Madeline Shannon of the Daily Courier Grants Pass residents addicted to prescription painkillers or heroin no longer have to travel to Medford for treatment. On Thursday, local officials and civil leaders lauded the grand opening of the new Grants Pass Treatment Center, located at 1885 N.E. Seventh St. — the result of more than a year of planning to address a drug epidemic that is off the charts. "This is a community-based organization, and our purpose was to address the opioid epidemic," said Nancy Yonally, chairwoman of Grace Roots Pathways to Wellness, which helped to establish the treatment center. "We decided to focus on having a very productive treatment program for our county and our community. I think we've accomplished that." The treatment center comes at a good time. In 2007, there were six heroin-related offenses in Josephine County. During the first half of 2016, there were 51 convictions. Prior to the opening of the treatment center, opioid addicts had to travel to Medford to seek treatment at a clinic there. The rise in arrests and convictions relating to opioid addiction in recent years in Josephine County has caused an onslaught of other problems, however, compelling many residents in and around Grants Pass to work toward establishing a treatment center in this county. "It's extremely important this is here," Grants Pass City Councilor Roy Lindsay said. "Patients are having to travel to Medford, and that's a dangerous situation, especially if they're on the edge of needing help." The new facility will provide individual care plans that will include prescriptions of suboxone and methadone, drugs used to wean addicts off heroin. The treatment plan typically lasts anywhere from two to five years, depending on the patient. Individualized care plans will also include counseling. Although some patients will receive more than others, everyone who comes to the clinic will be required to see a counselor at least once a month. Facility officials say that treatment programs will depend on the individual. "We do a methadone maintenance program, but there's also a new drug called norepinephrine that acts similarly," Matt Owen, one of the center's owners, explained. "But our position is to decide just based upon the individual, their biochemistry history, and what's the most appropriate for them." Owen owns a similar facility in Bend. Once it opens, the Grants Pass Treatment Center can serve up to 400 out-patients. The site will have three medical doctors, three full-time nurses, a program director and counselors. The alarming rise in heroin use isn't happening just in Josephine County. There were 287 drug-related deaths in Oregon in 2015 according to the Oregon Medical Examiner's Office, and heroin accounted for 37 percent of them. This is a 16 percent increase from 2010. Nationally, in 2014 there were nearly 29,000 opiate overdose deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlighting an emerging nationwide issue with heroin and opiate prescription abuse. According to the CDC, more people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2014 than any previous year on record. Opioids, primarily prescription painkillers and heroin, are the main drugs associated with overdose deaths. "Having this treatment center here is another demonstration that the community cares," Lindsay stated. "We really need this facility here."