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In the early 2000's doctors, clinics, and hospitals had no restriction on the amount of narcotic medication they could prescribed. As a result prescription pain medicine (opioids) were being prescribed in immeasurable quantities out of pain management clinics known as pill mills.   After years of destruction and countless overdoses around 2011 the U.S. government caught wind of what was going on and put restrictions on these doctor's and clinics essentially shutting down these pill mills. The aftermath of this tragedy left millions of Americans opioid dependent with no where to get medicine. Dependent is a synonym for need so...

Be an Example The idea is great; putting a bunch of treatment centers in one of the most beautiful places in the country, south east Florida. Everyone involved has good intentions, from the new addicts, all the way up to the owners of detox and treatment centers. New addicts, up until now, had not a clue about the mass amount of resources south east Florida has to offer. The owners of detox and treatment centers, most of whom were not too long ago in the same position as the new comer; hopeless and scared there was no way this obsession...

Palm Springs sober-home operator is the latest person arrested in a crackdown on abusive practices in drug addiction treatment facilities in Palm Beach County. Steven Michael Johnson, 45, was arrested Wednesday, accused of paying more than $95,000 in referral fees to have patients with substance abuse problems and insurance referred to him, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office arrest report. vidence collected during the investigation linked Johnson to 48 checks written to Alexander Vandervert, owner of Saje House in Lake Worth, who was arrested in December, accused of accepting patient brokering fees, the report said.  Vandervert said Johnson paid him...

The death count is the latest consequence of an escalating public health crisis: opioid addiction, now made more deadly by an influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50. Although the data is preliminary, the Times’s best estimate is that deaths rose 19 percent over the 52,404 recorded in 2015. And all evidence suggests the problem has continued to worsen in 2017. Heroin deaths rose 23 percent in one year, to 12,989, slightly higher than the number of gun homicides, according to government data released Thursday. Deaths...

article from http://www.mypalmbeachpost.com/sober-homes/ For addicts and alcoholics seeking sobriety, Palm Beach County is ground zero. Celebrities and pro athletes fly in on private jets. Millennials addicted to heroin and designer drugs are delivered by worried parents. It's a billion dollar industry chiefly fueled by pee in a cup. Yet the industry faces a huge bust if an FBI task force finds evidence of kickbacks, insurance fraud and patient brokering. The Palm Beach Post takes a hard look at the recovery boom at a make-or-break juncture. WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The sober homes task force arrested the operator of three Palm...