5NP 4 OR Recap
plus a little informal photo essay from our last pop-up at the Capitol
Dear Friends of WCA,
One of WCA’s organizational partners, the NAYA Action Fund, is leading a coalition to make it legal for laypeople like you — yes, you — and also recovery mentors, traditional health workers, and all kinds of community advocates to provide the 5 Needle Protocol, which is five acupuncture points in the ear to address trauma, stress and addiction. WCA’s mission is to create access to community acupuncture, so we’re thrilled!
5NP is already used by tribal communities in Oregon, and the goal is to expand the practice to ALL Oregonians who could benefit from it.
It’s a historic moment, because our 5NP legislation (House Bill 2143) is having a committee hearing on Thursday January 30th at 3 pm. If this effort is meaningful to you — especially if you’re an Oregonian — we would love for you to testify!
Here’s a guide to providing testimony either in person, virtually, or in writing, courtesy of Will Miller, Executive Director of the NAYA Action Fund.
72 hours before the hearing, the online registration will open up and you can register to testify. When you go to the registration form, it will ask you if you want to testify in person or virtually. If you say virtually, it will give you a link to a Teams meeting. Either way, please go to HB 2143’s web page on Monday 1/27 after 3 pm and click “register to testify”.
If you need technical help submitting written testimony please reach out to Noni Vaitekunas, who has kindly offered to walk people through the process. Noni’s email is wvaitekunas@pocatech.org
WCA has never been involved with legislation before, so we’re learning a lot! Here’s some more guidance from Will about how our 5NP legislation moves toward becoming law:
“The 2025 legislative session begins on Tuesday, January 21st and is constitutionally required to adjourn (Sine Die) by June 29th, though they’re aiming to wrap up by June 18th.
Our bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Nosse, will likely be read and referred to the House Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care on the first day of session. The committee will schedule a public hearing (on January 23rd!) and work session ahead of the first chamber deadline on April 9th. The exact timing will depend on how quickly the committee moves it forward—this could happen within the first few weeks of session or closer to April. We’ll need to stay in close communication with Rep. Nosse’s office.
Here’s an overview of what happens next in the legislative process (in case this is helpful):
Committee Assignment: After referral to the committee, the bill’s journey begins
Public Hearing: The committee schedules a hearing where we’ll gather as many supporters as possible to testify in favor of the bill
Work Session & Amendments: Legislators in the committee will discuss the bill, propose amendments if needed, and vote on it
Ways and Means: Since the bill has financial implications, it will move to the budget committee, where funding is allocated
Full House Vote: Once the bill gets funding, it heads to the House floor for a vote
Senate Process: If it passes the House, it moves to the Senate, where a similar process unfolds”
For reference, we’ve attached a few documents:
The 2025 legislative calendar with key dates
The 2025 legislative committee schedule
and a diagram of how a bill becomes a law:
In closing, here’s an example of written testimony from a regular contributor to this Substack:
My name is Jennifer Kehl. I worked for 20 years as a nurse in the ER, and now work as an acupuncturist in a community clinic. I also provide acupuncture for addiction/recovery in a harm reduction program. I am writing in support of House Bill 2143.
As a nurse working in an ER where a majority of the patient population consisted of those struggling with mental illness, homelessness, and substance abuse, I saw first hand what harm reduction means, and what it can do for those with limited resources.
I’m sure you will be hearing many statistics today about the breadth of the addiction and mental health struggles in our country. Those statistics represent people I would see everyday. People like:
• The 32 year old woman struggling with alcoholism whose funeral we had in our chapel.
• The 27 year old girl who almost had her leg amputated due to damage to vessels in her groin from IV heroin use.
• The man who had so many abscesses from heroin use that my nurse friend told me through tears “I don’t even know where to start”.
• The young man who swallowed his meth stash while being arrested. He had a fever of 107 and a heart rate of 200 in the ER. He was pronounced dead later that day.
• The 20 year old college student with mental illness and a developing meth addiction whose desperate mother screamed at me through the phone “JUST DO SOMETHING!!!”
With these and countless other images in my mind, I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t use every single tool we have in our toolbox. It’s imperative that we care for our fellow human beings in whatever way we are able.
Although I am fairly new to the acupuncture profession, I have already seen how regular acupuncture can help with harm reduction. I think about a patient I saw in my internship. He was coming in for neuropathy and blurted out one day, “I don’t want to drink anymore, it’s weird! My family doesn’t even believe me, I’ve been drinking every day for 30 years!” I frequently add the 5 needle protocol to my treatments for those who mention wanting help with smoking cessation, or just wanting to drink less. Even though people may only come in every week or two, they all report at least “cutting down”. I hear this a lot: “I just don’t think about it as much”.
As an acupuncturist, I also use 5 needle protocol every day for those struggling with mental illness and trauma. Patients have reported after several treatments that trauma has just “left my body”, or that they are still sad or stressed sometimes, but they don’t “feel it” in their body, and that they recover much quicker.
This medicine is cheap and effective. It is safe and can be taught easily to non-acupuncturists. This is not about the acupuncture profession or bureaucracy. This is about our responsibility as human beings to care for each other in any way we can.