INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Hoosiers struggling with addiction will now have more options for seeking treatment.
On Friday, Clean Slate, an outpatient addiction treatment facility, held a ribbon cutting for its latest Indianapolis location. The facility, located on the city’s far east side (9660 E. Washington), is the first of two facilities scheduled for ribbon cuttings this month. The other ceremony will take place at a facility located in the Herron Morton Neighborhood (1725 N. Meridian).
Clean Slate touts medicated assisted treatment for those struggling with addiction.
On hand for the ceremony was Jim McClelland, the executive director of Indiana’s Department of Drug Prevention, Treatment and Enforcement along with former US Congressman and Clean Slate board member Patrick J. Kennedy.
“Timely access to medication assistant treatment, we’ve been woefully short of that in this state, it’s been far easier to get high than to get help,” McClelland said.
Advocates like Patrick Kennedy, who battled opioid addiction himself, says a change in the way the country handles addiction is sorely needed. Kennedy says the focus needs to be more on recovery, and less on cycling addicts through the criminal justice system.
“Our current system says detox and you’ll be alright. Problem is when you go back out and use, which is what your brain tells you to do, you have the chance of dying. We don’t need to make people do that anymore,” Kennedy said.
Those are thoughts that seem to be echoed at the state level. Earlier this week, Governor Holcomb signed a bill into law dedicating more funds to treatment programs for inmates with drug addictions.
Clean Slate representatives say the organizations plans on opening two more treatment centers in Evansville and Louisville in the coming weeks.
