Fighting Opioid Abuse in Indian Country

When Misty Jones looks back on her drug-using years, she sees a pattern. Since she was 18, she’s been having babies, using drugs, losing custody of her babies, and trying to quit drugs so she can get them back. Now 36 and in recovery from heroin addiction for 15 months, Jones, a member of the Port Gamble S’Klallam tribe, said she realizes she needs to beat her drug habit before she can take care of her children. “This time it’s going to be all about Misty and getting clean and not about Misty and getting her kids back,” she said. Jones attributes much of her ability to stay sober to the treatment and special housing she receives here on the Muckleshoot reservation, about 30 miles south of Seattle, and to buprenorphine, the addiction medication she takes every day. Plus, she said, “I’ve looked death in the eye too many times to think I could keep doing it.”