PORTLAND, Ore. — Among Portland’s most intensive venues for addiction treatment, there are puzzling signs that the city’s drug crisis has entered a new phase. Where once withdrawal management facilities struggled to find beds for everyone seeking them, those beds are now increasingly sitting unused.
Portland is host to two large-scale treatment center and recovery centers, one of them Fora Health in Southeast. While Fora offers a range of programs, the centerpiece is walk-in withdrawal management, commonly known as “detox.”
“It’s not a process of cleansing,” said Jennifer Hartley, chief medical officer at Fora Health, explaining why providers have moved away from calling it detox. “It is a process of two things: one, getting through the dangerous phase of withdrawal; and two, starting medications.”…