St. Paul Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has implemented a new program to help treat patients struggling with addiction. Crews now carry suboxone, which can be administered to those in withdrawal.

“This medication will absolutely save lives,” said St. Paul EMS Assistant Chief Steve Sampson. “To have this offered through a fire or EMS services is a little bit on the cutting edge. There aren’t a lot of fire-based EMS services across the country that are deploying this.”

He explained they started reaching out to other agencies elsewhere in the country who are administering suboxone to see if a program could be adopted here.

“Our community in the City of St. Paul has kind of been ravaged by the impacts of opioid related emergency medical services,” said Sampson. “Our folks were looking for a resource that could benefit those who are most in need.”

Within six months, in partnership with Regions Hospital, St. Paul EMS received DEA approval to start administering the medication.

Regions Hospital Emergency Medical Services was involved in training the crews, which included testing over the last month to ensure EMS medics are prepared to administer suboxone.

Patients will choose whether they want to use the option. It’s meant for people who immediately start to have withdrawal symptoms after getting Narcan, or those who decided to stop using drugs on their own and need intervention to help with withdrawal symptoms before they relapse, according to Sampson.

“The only option we really had before was to bring those individuals to an emergency department now we have the ability to give people the option of a medication treatment and we can meet them where they are,” he said.

Suboxone has been used for years, including by the Hazeldon Betty Ford Foundation.

“Suboxone is very safe,” said Dr. Alta DeRoo, the chief medical officer for Hazeldon Betty Ford, who explained it’s classified as an opioid. “It only partially activates that opioid receptor. It has a ceiling effect so even if someone wanted to take more suxboxone, it doesn’t have the profile of overdose like other opioids would.”

She added, “People aren’t going to get high off of suboxone.”

It can be taken in an acute setting or long-term, according to Dr. DeRoo.

“They’ll no longer be having the opioid withdrawal of rapid heartbeat, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea,” she said. “It takes away those horrible symptoms with opioid withdrawal because it actually stimulates the opioid receptor.”

She’s encouraged by St. Paul EMS’ new program.

“Giving some type of medicine on board to bridge that treatment from the EMS person into a facility like ours could be a life saving measure,” she said. “I’m very excited to be hearing about this.”