Drug Use and Recovery Rate in the United States

In Louisa, Kentucky, an unbearable social crisis has become the main source of economic opportunity.  Many people in long-term recovery say the space between leaving rehab and getting back on your feet is the most difficult period in addiction recovery.  More than a million people in the United States are arrested every year on drug-related charges, and for them, finding a steady job, consistent housing and reliable transportation can be even more difficult than the tremors, hallucinations and nausea of detox. Studies have shown that relapse rates for people in recovery may be as high as 85 percent within the first year.  In eastern Kentucky, a region plagued by poverty and at the heart of the country’s opioid epidemic, the burden of addressing this treatment gap has mainly been taken up by addiction-rehab companies. Many offer not just chemical but also spiritual and logistical services with the aim of helping people in addiction find employment and re-enter society. In the two five-year periods between 2008 and 2017, eight of the 10 counties in America with the steepest decline in overdose mortality rates were in eastern Kentucky. The state now has more residential treatment beds per person than any other state in the country.  Addiction Recovery Care (ARC), whose motto is “Crisis to Career,” has treated tens of thousands of people in addiction since its founding in 2008.  In the 2010s, the area lost hundreds of mining jobs and ARC began buying up abandoned buildings and turning them into businesses staffed by clients in recovery. There is an event-planning brick-and-mortar, a cafe, a bakery, a small gallery, an old theater that the company renovated, a pharmacy, a welding company, an accredited Christian college, a private Christian school, a landscaping company and an auto-body shop.  About half of the company’s 1,000 current employees in the state are in recovery from some kind of substance-use disorder, and one-third have gone through one of the company’s more than 30 residential-rehab programs themselves.  ARC has helped turn Kentucky into a “treatment on demand” state.  Most people in addiction could get a bed in rehab within 24 hours of asking for one, regardless of their insurance.  Lawn signs advertise the company’s “telecare” rehab effort, called ARC Anywhere.  There have been complaints about ARC and there have been losses. One of the women in the story eventually overdosed and died. Read the article to learn more about ARC and to hear the stories of some of the folks who ARC is trying to help in their recovery. Here's the link: Opioids Ravaged a Kentucky Town. Then Rehab Became Its Business. - The New York Times