Michigan’s newest weapon in addiction fight runs on gas and four wheels

• The state gave $2.7 million to addiction service providers for transportation
• The money is part of $1.6 billion state and local governments are getting from national opioid settlements
• Advocates cite transportation as a hurdle in fighting the opioid epidemic

ST. IGNACE —  There’s a new Ford Edge SUV in the parking lot of an addiction service in St. Ignace, and a Chevy Equinox at a similar building 50 miles north in Sault Ste. Marie. In Port Huron, a Chrysler Pacifica is touted as a new tool to curb the drug crisis, and gas cards and an expanded community van service are doing the same in Muskegon.

The latest weapon in the war against the opioid epidemic is as simple as it is effective — transportation to get people to treatment and recovery services.

Michigan doled out $2.7 million to 20 addiction service providers in 15 counties, with plans to distribute another $2.5 million in the budget year that begins in October.

While vehicles, gasoline and drivers may not seem like an obvious way to spend funds meant to address substance use disorder, advocates say that treatment only works if people suffering from substance use disorders can get to those services.

“Every facet of care is connected to transportation,” said Greg Toutant, executive director of Great Lakes Recovery Centers in the Upper Peninsula. “It’s literally keeping people alive.”

Related:

• Some opioid settlement funds may sit untouched in Michigan. Here’s why
• Northern Michigan fights drugs with jobs. Can it work statewide?
• In Michigan’s vast UP, finding help for drugs is hard. So is finding solutions

The funds come from the pot of money flowing into the state from national lawsuit settlements with pharmacies, opioid manufacturers and distributors deemed to be partly responsible for the explosion in opioid use disorder.  

Over 18 years, Michigan will receive about $1.6 billion from the settlements. The money began arriving in January 2023 and is split between the state and local governments to help fight an epidemic that kills a Michigander every four hours. 

The most money of any single year, $186 million, is coming this year, adding to the imperative that advocates and state and community leaders in charge of the disbursement quickly find solutions that put a dent in the crisis.

Spending has focused primarily on treatment and recovery. But experts have pointed to tangential issues that continue to hobble recovery  efforts — affordable housing, jobs, and transportation.

Service providers routinely raise transportation as a major stumbling block to addiction help.

“If you don't have the means to get to your appointment, if you don't have the means to get your methadone or to get the resources you need, then that is a huge obstacle,” said Natasha Bagdasarian, chief medical executive for the state.

Through March, in the first four months after transportation grants were disbursed by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, more than 4,100 rides were provided to individuals involved in drug treatment and recovery, according to the state.

Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center in St. Ignace was one of three Sacred Heart centers in Michigan to receive transportation grants this year. The $80,000 the Upper Peninsula clinic received was used to purchase an SUV and pay the salary of a part-time driver.

That facility, a mile from the Mackinac Bridge, is the “only methadone clinic in UP, according toTracy Antkoviak, supervisor and therapist at the St. Ignace clinic.

“We have (clients) come from as far away from Baraga County,” which is 225 miles west,” Antkoviak said. “We don’t have Uber up here and a taxi is very expensive.”

“There are individuals who need daily dosings (of methadone),” Antkoviak said. “Individuals that are commuting to and (Sault Ste. Marie,) that’s 100 miles a day, that's 600 miles a week that somebody has to travel just to receive medication. That's not including how far they have to travel if they have a job or other responsibilities.”

Since offering rides to the clinic for medical-assisted treatment and counseling, the rate of missed appointments has dropped.

Blue Water Recovery & Outreach Center in St. Clair County used state transportation grant dollars to purchase a van and pay the salaries of one part-time and two part-time drivers.

“It’s probably one of the better uses (of opioid settlement funds) the state has identified,” said Patrick Patterson, executive director at the agency. “The settlement dollars aren’t necessarily to identify needs (in addiction treatment), it’s to spend on where the gaps are, and transportation is one of them.”

In some urban areas, transportation grants have been used for gas cards or, in the case of Muskegon’s Health West, expanded support of an existing van rideshare program operated by another agency.

Transportation is more tenuous in rural Michigan, said Toutant of Great Lakes Recovery Center, which used transportation grants to purchase three Chevy Equinox SUVs to help assist clients.

While grants have not been finalized for the upcoming year, service agencies that received funds this year are expecting to receive some, but smaller, grants.

“If we’re going to be successful in providing critical care,” Toutant said, “we have to provide transportation.”