At HCMC, doctors pursue a new way to treat opioid addiction

Tonya Rainey estimates that she has cycled through hospital emergency rooms more than 50 times since she became addicted to opioids seven years ago.

Typically, Rainey, 45, who is homeless, has been given a small dose of medicine to ease her painful withdrawal symptoms and then sent back to the streets with a few numbers to call for chemical dependency treatment. Within hours, she is back to injecting heroin up to six times a day, which she says nearly took her life.

http://www.startribune.com/at-hennepin-county-medical-center-doctors-pursue-a-new-way-to-treat-opioid-addiction/498349391/