In the last week of January 2020, the Seaside Recovery Center, a clinic that uses methadone and other medication to treat people with opioid addiction, opened in the city’s south end.
Less than two months later, the clinic had to rethink how to care for patients, as did Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare’s clinic in Warrenton’s Premarq Center.
Quietly operating in nondescript buildings where their services aren’t outwardly advertised, both clinics provide medication-assisted treatment for opioid abuse. The medication — methadone and Suboxone in Seaside; just Suboxone in Warrenton — does not replace the euphoric experience of opioids like heroin, but works to suppress cravings and withdrawal.