City health workers have begun delivering free methadone to opioid addicts amid the coronavirus crisis — sparking outrage from officials who called it “disgusting” and a “recipe for disaster.”
The program was announced Tuesday by the city’s Health Department, which said it began with a “soft launch” last month and was expanding the initiative by lowering the age of eligibility from 65 to 50.
“Methadone is a life-saving medication,” Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot said in a prepared statement.
“New Yorkers who take methadone and get sick from COVID-19 should not have to choose between getting their medication and protecting their health or the health of others.”
Federal regulations previously barred home delivery of methadone, but the COVID-19 pandemic led to an emergency loosening of the rules for addicts who’ve tested positive for the disease, show symptoms or are at high risk if they get infected, the Health Department said.
Teams of two workers each have been specially trained and will be outfitted with masks, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes to safely make about 1,300 curbside deliveries a month to addicts’ homes and taxpayer-funded hotels, the Health Department said.
Participants will receive at least seven days’ worth of methadone, an oral pain reliever that’s used to prevent withdrawal symptoms in addicts who are enrolled in treatment programs.
The program — announced just a day after Barbot publicly apologized for telling a high-ranking NYPD official, “I don’t give two rats’ asses about your cops” — immediately came under fire from elected officials, with state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), calling it “a real doozy.”
“What this says is these people aren’t worth fighting for. The city has given up on these people and saying they’re going to live out the rest of their lives as addicts,” said Lanza, a former Manhattan prosecutor who said addicts should be weaned off of drugs, not given more.
“I think it’s disgusting.”
City Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens) called the program an example of “misplaced priorities,” saying, “The Department of Health should be delivering COVID testing kits to communities hardest hit by the virus.”
“While people struggling with opioid addiction need our help and compassion, dropping off methadone doses like care packages is a recipe for disaster,” he added.
“These drugs should be dispensed and administered in clinics and facilities that can provide a range of services.”
Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) said the city’s move “underscores the problems associated with methadone dependency that have been known for many years,” adding: “We need to get out of the methadone business overall.”
Luke Nasta, CEO of Camelot of Staten Island, which runs several non-profit treatment centers, said home delivery of methadone was a “necessity during the quarantine period” because “if you’re on methadone, you’re dependent on it.”
But he said that “as a long-term solution, it would be a disaster.”
“There’s an increased probability of an overdose death,” he said.
The outspoken head of the NYPD Sergeants Benevolent Association, Ed Mullins, called the program “unbelievable,” adding, “You can’t make this up.”
“For a city that claims to have no money, it’s interesting how [Mayor Bill] de Blasio continues to spend money on dysfunctional programs,” he said. “This is just more dysfunction on top of dysfunction.”
Most patients’ methadone is paid for by Medicaid or insurance, city officials said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the delivery cost taxpayers anything.
Queens Councilman Robert Holden worried that the methadone home delivery program could turn into a boondoggle.
“While good intentioned, I’m concerned with Mayor de Blasio’s historic indifference to potential consequences with most of his social experiments. The point of a methadone clinic is that there are qualified aids who ensure that patients take the medicine on a daily basis. I don’t see how this could be replicated on a delivery basis, and I believe it will only invite fraud, waste and abuse,” Holden said.