www.montereycountynow.com MAY 29-JUNE 4, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 19 encampments on streets and in riverbeds, but also inside the county jail and juvenile hall. They use a range of tools—pharmaceuticals, referrals to organizations that can help with housing, and simply a listening ear in their effort to address the opioid epidemic, one person at a time. CCODP was founded as a nonprofit in 2020 and aims to eliminate overdoses, increase awareness, educate the public and improve access to community support and treatment options. The team, composed of doctors and people recovering from addiction, works to connect individuals struggling with substance abuse to treatment programs, while also distributing essentials. CCODP is one of several groups in the nonprofit and government sectors working together in a unified front to fight the opioid crisis. The Monterey Police Department’s Multi-Disciplinary Outreach Team (MDOT), for example, works closely with CCODP, as does the County Probation Department, the Sheriff’s Office, Public Defender’s Office and more. On May 1, the County of Monterey’s Health Department set up four free vending machines at various places in Salinas and Marina to distribute naloxone and fentanyl test strips, which allow users to test the composition of the drug before consuming it. Leading CCODP’s street team is Close, a former emergency room physician at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, who saw firsthand the pressing need for change. Over a decade-and-a-half, she would see patients return again and again, treating them only when their illness became a medical emergency. In 2012, she treated a 19-month-old who was admitted to the ER; the toddler died of an overdose. “That’s when it crystallized for me that something dramatic had to change,” Close says. So she took the fight to the streets. The idea of CCODP began in the ER with collaboration in mind. “Law enforcement and medicine haven’t always been compatible,” Close says. “Fortunately, one of our leaders at CHOMP, the head of security, I reached out to him [and asked]: How can we figure this out? These are our community members. We have to make this easier. And he was in full support. “We had all these different groups that we realized were taking care of the same people, so we just decided to bring them all together,” Close says. “It’s all just kind of growing because it has to.” In 2024, 864 suspected overdoses were reported in Monterey County, 64 of those resulting in confirmed deaths. Another 47 deaths are pending as possible overdoses. (Year over year, California experienced a 14-percent decrease in overdose deaths from July 2023-2024 compared to 2022-2023, according to a provisional report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, although final numbers for 2024 are still pending; in 2023, the state reported 7,847 deaths. That year, Monterey County reported 932 suspected overdoses and 145 fatalities.) Treating opioid dependency can be complex due to the fact “every patient is different,” Close says. “What works for one might not work for another. We find the treatment plan that will work for the patient we are taking care of.” One tool is buprenorphine, available in tablets, films or injections. The synthetic opioid activates receptors in the brain, treating opioid withdrawal and cravings, but not causing euphoria or overdose like drugs such as fentanyl or heroin. “It’s relatively safe—you essentially can not overdose on it in isolation,” Close says. “It’s the perfect and safest answer we have.” In addition to buprenorphine, treatment options include methadone and Sublocade. CCODP operates a clinic out of Dr. Salar Deldar’s Pacific Rehabilitation & Pain office in Monterey, where patients can receive once-a-month Sublocade injections. (Sublocade is a slow release of buprenorphine.) Close says it’s extremely powerful in stopping relapse, easing cravings or withdrawal symptoms. With those medications in hand, Close and her group tailor treatment plans to every patient’s needs, aiming for safe, lasting healing. Sometimes, patients commit to a plan and successfully get off of drugs and off the streets. But not always. The couple from Soledad Street in Chinatown on that cold February morning never followed up, and the team has been unable to locate them since. Beyond the streets, the CCODP team meets with patients inside the county jail in Salinas on Thursdays and hosts mobile clinics at Lake El Estero in Monterey on Wednesdays. Left: The team at CCODP leave Narcan in easy-to-find places around Chinatown in Salinas. Below: The Chinatown neighborhood is known as a place for people, many of them unhoused, to score drugs. The CCODP team centers their outreach where clients are likely to be.
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