Because addicts and alcoholics face real prejudice every day. We believe the only way this will change is if the general public believes and accepts the truth — addicts and alcoholics are just like everyone else.

Here are just a few examples of the prejudice we face::

• People with a past drug conviction are inelligible for federal student loans. (They don't even place these kinds of restrictions on people with convictions for murder or rape.)
• Sober houses face community resistance. (Even in college towns! How much sense does it make to fight a house for recovering addicts and alcoholics when the alternative is a house full of college students?)
• Professional helpers (like social workers, psychologists, doctors and nurses) often don't like having to deal with addicts and alcoholics in their offices. We've heard local agency directors publicly say that alcoholics are irresponsible and that many addicts will never recover, so we should just put them in hospice.
• Life insurance companies discriminate against addicts and alcoholics. (Even against folks who have been sober for decades.)
• Health insurance companies refuse to cover addiction treatment or place severe limits on care. (Can you think of any other common illness that they won't cover or place such limits on? Did you know that addiction treatment success rates and compliance rates are similar to hypertension, diabetes and asthma? What would happen if insurance companies started limiting care to these other patients?)
  • While overall insurance company spending on health care has increased dramatically, spending on addiction treatment has dropped by 73.6%.
  • Inpatient length of stay dropped by 10 days from 1992 to 2001.
  • Inpatient admissions dropped by 50% and outpatient admissions dropped by 18%.
  • The average outpatient treatment episode is only 4 visits.
  • In 2002, 1,200,000 people who wanted treatment did not receive it. 37.5% said cost was the issue.
• Incarceration for drug crimes has exploded by as much as 800%.