OPIATE OVERDOSE DEATHS, 2005-2009

Kitsap County Washington State

25 800

20 700

15 600

10 500

5 400

0 300
2005 06 07 08 09 2005 06 07 08 09

ADULT ADMISSIONS TO TREATMENT

Adult admissions to state-funded treatment for prescription-
type opiate addiction are 11 times what they were in 2001.
50 (hundreds)
4,089
40 3,474
30 2,630
2,224
20 1,729
1,211
10 596 836
364 446
0
2001 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

KILOGRAMS SEIZED
The number of kilograms of heroin seized by drug task
forces in Washington state.
2006 26
2007 53
2008 14
2009 47
2010 1,490

NEEDLES EXCHANGED
The number of free, clean needles exchanged for drug users
through the Kitsap County Health District, 2008-2010.

2008 282,039

2009 436,390

2010 682,462
Note: No data prior to 2008
NEURON

HOW METHADONE WORKS

1 All opiate-based drugs — heroin, oxycodone, morphine and
others — travel through the bloodstream to the brain, where
they attach to specialized proteins called mu opiod receptors, Axon
like a key going into a lock.
2 These receptors, which are located on the surface of brain
cells, are triggered by the opiates to release feelings of Neurotransmitters
pleasure from the brain’s reward system — the “high” a
person gets.
3 The more the brain is exposed to the artificial 3
opiate, however, the less responsive its receptors
become in triggering those feelings of happiness —
hence the tolerance the person gets for the drug and
the more they need of it to get high. 1
Prolonged opiate use actually alters the brain’s Receptors Synaptic
chemistry to where the addict simply needs a gap
dose of opiates to feel normal.
4 Methadone can be used to treat an opiate
The body has its own
addict by quelling the addiction without giving
“naturally occurring 2
the high from the drug. Methadone does so by 5
opiods,” such as 4
attaching to the receptors and occupying
endorphins, that also
them, as other opiates do, but — in a low
attach to the same
enough dose — not signaling a release of
receptors. Those bonds
pleasure from the brain’s reward system.
come naturally when
people engage in the 5 Buprenorphine, a more recent drug used to treat opiate
Sources: Kitsap County Health District; Northwest High promoting of basic addiction, is similar to methadone in that it occupies the
Intensity Drug Trafficking Area; Treatment and Assess-
life functions, such receptors, which quell the addiction. But the drug has
ment Report Generation Tool; Division of Behavioral the unique “ceiling effect” in which it will actually block
Health and Recovery; Washington State Department of as eating or sex.
Social and Health Service; Center for Health Statistics; — not just occupy — the receptors from other opiates.
Washington State Department of Health