By Phillip M. Bailey, Louisville Courier Journal
Tim Robinson is blunt when asked what he thinks of Purdue Pharma — maker of the popular painkiller OxyContin — and its impact on Eastern Kentucky.
“Killers,” he said.
Robinson, a former attorney, founded Addiction Recovery Care with his wife, Leila, to fight the pain-pill crisis.
As a recovering alcoholic, he said he understands the uphill plight of addiction. The center is serving more than 1,100 people across the state from its Louisa-based headquarters.
“When OxyContin came out, it was marketed saying only 2% of people would become addicted,” he said. “It was promoted falsely, and because of that, now we’re in the middle of an opioid crisis.”
Robinson said Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy filing this week is the center of conversation in the region. The company is looking to restructure after a reported multibillion-dollar agreement with dozens of states and thousands of cities.
Talk of the settlement has also brought renewed questions about Kentucky’s $24 million settlement with the drugmaker four years ago, Robinson said.
Robinson said residents and families hit hardest by addiction want to know from the past three Democratic attorneys general — Greg Stumbo, who is running for the seat this year; Jack Conway; and incumbent Andy Beshear, who is running for governor — about why other states are raking in much larger dollar amounts.
This year, for instance, Oklahoma reached a $270 million settlement with Purdue Pharma to cover its handling of the opioid crisis.
“I remember thinking $24 million was an awfully low amount,” Robinson said. “I mean, look at what Oklahoma got and they haven’t been hit with the crisis we have, and have nowhere near the deaths per capita. Kentucky is ground zero for this thing, and we got short changed.”
When Stumbo brought Purdue Pharma to court more than a decade ago, he proclaimed the case could be worth $1 billion. He told The Courier Journal this week one of his first acts, if reelected to the seat, will be to reexamine the case.
Stumbo also said, unlike his immediate successor Conway, he wouldn’t have settled with the pharmaceutical giant out of court. He said he would have pursued the case to a jury trial.
“I want to finish the mission I started,” Stumbo said. “I’ve seen firsthand what those sons of bitches did to people, including my family. It’s personal and it’s a passion with me.”
But Conway disputes if such a legal strategy would have worked, given the narrow road of the case he inherited. He said whatever a jury would have awarded would have likely been reversed on appeal, and that people are second-guessing the settlement for political reasons.
Stumbo goes further in his criticism of the case’s handling by both of his successors, and lends credibility to an attack being levied by Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, who has raised conflict-of-interest questions surrounding Beshear and Conway.
Beshear, the governor’s office points out, worked for Louisville-based Stites & Harbison, the law firm representing Purdue Pharma against the state, before being elected attorney general in 2015. He has denied any involvement with the lawsuit, but Republican legislators have consistently criticized his actions surrounding the case.
Republicans charge Conway, who had just lost his bid for governor to Bevin, rushed the $24 million settlement to help Beshear, the incoming attorney general, avoid a conflict of interest.
Bevin also has called attention to how $4.2 million of the state’s settlement was paid out to a law firm that Conway later joined as a partner.
“The optics on that don’t look very good,” Stumbo said. “And I think any fair-minded person would look at that and ask, ‘Why did that happen?’
“I’ve never known either of those men to do anything which I thought was improper,” he added. “I have great respect for both of them, but there are questions that legitimately I think could flow out from those set of facts.”
Kentucky among top settlements
Thirty-six states have sued Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, its owners, in a series of court cases since 2004.
West Virginia, for example, negotiated a $10 million settlement in 2004, paid over a four-year period mostly for drug abuse programs.
The suits against Purdue Pharma often stem from claims based on state or federal consumer protection laws, which allege the popularity of OxyContin, introduced by the company in 1996, was fueled by a misleading marketing campaign.
In a May 2007, for instance, Purdue Pharma executives lost a major federal court case in which they agreed to pay out $600 million in fines and other payments. They also had to admit in court to making false claims about the powerful painkiller.
“Nearly six years and longer ago, some employees made, or told other employees to make, certain statements about OxyContin to some health care professionals that were inconsistent with the FDA-approved prescribing information for OxyContin and the express warnings it contained about risks associated with the medicine,” Purdue Pharma said in a May 2007 statement.
“We accept responsibility for those past misstatements and regret that they were made,” the statement also said.
Michelle Mello, a law professor at Stanford University who has researched opioid cases nationally, said Purdue Pharma was “the major and most culpable player” in terms of making the most potent and addictive drug, coupled with bad business practices.
The trend of large civil settlements, beginning with West Virginia and Kentucky, has increased steadily over the years in large part because prosecutors have learned more about drug-company practices, she said.
“It’s important to remember the evidence and record has evolved a lot since 2015 because of all the discovery that has gone on,” Mello said. “There’s a lot more that is known about these companies’ practices and that just puts the litigation in a very different position.”
Stumbo’s suit against Purdue Pharma arrived right after the federal case and covered the company’s activities from 1996 to 2001. But it did not go after statutory consumer protection violations because Kentucky accepted approximately $500,000 as part of the 2007 federal case in which Purdue pleaded guilty to fraudulently marketing Oxycontin.
The Stumbo administration instead focused its allegations on Purdue Pharma committing Medicaid fraud and creating a public nuisance in its marketing, which has a higher legal threshold.
Conway said his administration got what was a record settlement at the time, and without enough regulatory tools to fully prosecute it.
“I understand politics are being played in 2019,” he said. “I really don’t want to engage in a tit for tat with the Bevin administration, but I do want to say we had a difficult case to prove and I got the most money I could in a difficult situation late in 2015.”
Legal experts who follow opioid cases back up Conway’s point that other states, such as Oklahoma, are receiving larger settlements because they have stronger regulations protecting consumers from drug companies.
Rebecca Haffajee, a former University of Michigan health professor who studied the opioid issue, said what Kentucky received was in line with settlements in those earlier years. She said the state’s $24 million judgment was based on the limited evidence base and overdose statistics available to prosecutors at the time
“The harms in 2007 were different from what they were in 2015 and what they are today,” she said. “They were growing during that whole time. If we think about it from that perspective, it doesn’t seem quite as small. It was along the lines with other states.”
Haffajee, who now works as a policy researcher at the Rand Corp. think tank, said Oklahoma prosecutors should be given credit for their novel use of their public nuisance law, but the comparison with Kentucky isn’t apples to apples.
“In Oklahoma, the public nuisance law is much more favorable,” she said. “It’s more generous and generally framed, and it pulls in more types of things that can be public nuisances, and that was a promising strategy from a claims perspective to get the charges to stick.”
Conway admits part of the reason eyebrows are being raised about the $24 million settlement was the promises he and Stumbo made about what the suit could bring in.
In 2007, Stumbo said the case was worth up to $1 billion, and Conway later said in court records it was worth $100 million.
Republican critics of the case’s handling, especially in Bevin’s office, point to those statements as another example of how Kentuckians were hosed by the Purdue Pharma settlement, but Conway said it is a routine a legal strategy against the plaintiff.
“I readily acknowledge, I was not reticent about trying to create public litigation pressure on Purdue,” he said. “What’s the old saying? ‘If you get everything you asked for, you didn’t get enough?'”
What Beshear won’t answer
A year before Bevin announced he was running for reelection, his office filed a suit aimed at Beshear and Conway to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the settlement.
Specifically, the governor’s office wants to know more about an expired state contract, awarded to the Louisville-based law firm then known as Dolt, Thompson, Shepherd & Kinney.
Conway became a partner at the firm after it received about $4.2 million of the $24 million settlement he negotiated. He has said he was “walled off” from the firm’s involvement and has not profited from the case.
But Bevin has slammed the contract as an example of Democratic corruption, and administration officials told The Courier Journal they’re being denied certain documents and sworn depositions surrounding the Purdue Pharma deal.
Under the deal, Purdue Pharma made an initial payment of $12 million with one-third going to the firm where Conway now works. This is to be followed by eight more annual payments of $1.5 million each.
Blake Brickman, the governor’s chief of staff, said the drug company’s bankruptcy filing could put those funds at risk. He said the settlement Conway allowed and Beshear oversaw paid the attorney first and will be well below the state’s anti-drug programming needs.
“The opioid crisis is one of the biggest issues facing Kentucky,” Brickman said. “The fact that Kentucky only received $24 million instead of close to $300 million like Oklahoma, shows we missed out on hundreds of millions of funding that could go to opioid abuse, prevention and treatment.”
The Beshear campaign bristled at questions about his role in the Purdue Pharma case, and cast Bevin and other Republican official’s comments as spinning a “conspiracy theory” amid a tight race.
“Andy had no role in the settlement and has said that many times,” Sam Newton, a Beshear campaign spokesman, said in an email. “Do you all think the attorney general has been lying? As attorney general, Andy has been very aggressive against opioid companies, while Matt Bevin has formally opposed his lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson.”
Newton emphasized how Beshear has filed nine separate suits against drug companies, and is moving those cases toward trial.
Background: Tentative Purdue Pharma settlement puts spotlight back on Beshear
The Courier Journal asked the Beshear campaign several questions about his role, which remain unanswered.
Beshear’s campaign, for instance, took a pass on questions of whether he ever billed his former law firm for any consultation tied to the Purdue Pharma case; if Kentucky should have recouped more than $24 million; and what document shows Beshear recusing himself as attorney general in regard to the Purdue Pharma case.
“Attorney General Beshear is doing everything in his power to keep the public from knowing the answers to these questions,” Brickman said. “He has fought us time and time again to prevent sunlight on this very issue.”
And a former assistant attorney general, Lainie Kaiser, who worked on the Purdue Pharma suit, has also given Bevin administration officials further reason to be suspicious about the Purdue settlement.
In a sworn deposition, Kaiser, who is suing Beshear’s office for gender discrimination, said the Purdue Pharma case was settled because Conway’s staff was concerned about how it would be handled when Beshear took office.
“I think there was some question since Stites & Harbison was counsel for Purdue Pharma, and the incoming attorney general was a partner at Stites & Harbison, that there would be some conflict once he took office,” she said, according to court records. “There was some discussion of the case getting moved to the governor’s office should Jack Conway win, because he was running for governor.”
Conway said this week that up until voters cast their ballots in his race against Bevin, he was confident he was going to be governor, and believed the case would move with him there after the 2015 election. He said that thought, however, played no role in the settlement decision after the election was over.
“I had no idea what Andy Beshear wanted or didn’t want because I never had the first conversation with Andy about the settlement of this case,” Conway said. “Stites & Harbison and the attorney general’s office were at each other’s throats, so there was no cozy relationship there either.”
Reach Phillip M. Bailey at pbailey@courier-journal.com or 502-582-4475. Follow him on Twitter at @phillipmbailey.
Why don’t we ask Tim Robinson how much he has made from this opioid crisis??? Guess he’s thinking he might have missed out on a few million? He’s worried his organization will lose 75% of their clients if the ACA is abolished.
Tim, do you really care? As long as you are making a fortune I would think not. Just my opinion along with the majority of Louisa and Lawrence County. The only ones that see good in what you are doing are your employees. They will not bite the hand that feeds them. All of your people in rehab was either going to jail or going to rehab. Why would you choose? Just remember one thing. The government will not fund this forever and it will be gone. Sooner than later we as residents of Louisa and Lawrence County hope.
SMH & John,
You are both either extremely jealous or both fools — I’m guessing both.
That’s a big no. I need nothing, so I am not jealous. As far as a fool. That’s another no for me. Only a fool tries alcohol or drugs in the first place. Sorry but they are both choices.
Matt Brown here.
To SMH and John-
ARC saved my life and helped to restore my marriage after an 18 year battle with addiction. I have been in recovery for over 5 years and 4 months now. Everywhere I go in “Louisa and Lawrence County,” I see the smiling, productive faces of people who have defeated addiction.
I’ll take my last breath fighting addiction, pointing people towards Jesus, and battling for the dignity of every human life.
And just to be clear – neither of you speak for the citizens of “Louisa and Lawrence County.” You are just representing a small group of loud complainers.
You are WRONG about the small group. The only ones that praise you are your own affiliates. Go figure.
And by the way. I’m 55 years drug and alcohol free and do not need to ask my friends to post anything about It as you can see from the other comments. Give it time.
I thank God for ARC everyday. These people helped save my life, and lives of many of my friends. I realize it takes money to continue to help people. ARC is a Christ focused company so God will provide all the resources needed to get His work done.
I am a person in long term recovery and have been abstinent from drugs and alcohol since 3/14/13. I am also a nurse who became addicted to opiates after an injury.
I am blessed to be able to be a nurse at ARC and I get to see many miracles.
Since I went to treatment I have seen many more treatment centers open and many more lives changed. I believe peer support is the key to these changed lives because who better to show others the way out than someone who found the way themself.
I am grateful ❤️
All I know is after over 20 years in addiction I have over 4 years sobriety in today. Today I didn’t wake up dependent on a substance to get me out of bed. Today I get to play a proactive role in the community. Today I’m a husband to an amazing wife, I’m a son who’s mother no longer has to worry about if she’s going to get a call that her son is dead, I’m a father. I’m no longer selfish and self-seeking but put others first, uplifting them and encouraging them. There is hope! God has a purpose and a destiny for each of us! We allow ourselves to get focus on one thing, one thing that gets our focus off of all the positive things that are going on around us and this disables us from beginning effective in a positive way. The fact is people are finding recovery, they are finding hope, and they are living a meaningful life!
So I have been staying away from Social Media for a while now but figured id spread some positivity today.
I’m alive.
I should be dead along with the 70,237 known overdose deaths in 2017 (14.7 of every 100,000) nationwide or 1160 (27.9 deaths per 100,000) right here in KY. In my 5 years in recovery I have stood across the casket for 24 folks that lost their battle with their own personal demons and asked myself ” Did I do all I could to reach them?”.
And plain and simple Big Pharma played a roll in that. That’s all I’m going to say on that subject.
But I also have stood across the room as hundreds of success stories reunited with families, got their first real job and started paying taxes , graduated college, got an apartment, reached out to people who were right where they were a year ago, worked in food pantries or proudly got their one day to one year to 35 year chips.
Some had great spiritual awakenings akin to the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, the tax collectors and lepers and blind men…. you get the point. Great powerful positive things for people who made bad choices or were dealt a bad hand in life and turned to the wrong things to numb and comfort.
Some people wont understand because they have never experienced hopelessness……. and that’s ok. That’s better than ok. I salute those of you who have never had to walk in my shoes or experience withdrawal from drugs or alcohol or shamefully hand over your last few dollars knowing it was not the right thing to do but powerless to change it. I honestly do salute you . Policemen and firemen and teachers and and emts and doctors and grandmas and everyone else that made good choices, And to all of those same people that do those same jobs that I sit in the rooms with….keep rocking your recovery.
As far as treatment goes
This is working in treatment….
Every day you get up lace up your shoes and go off to fight a battle for people that can not fight for themselves. You help them stand against the demon that rages in their mind or heart or spirit and try so desperately to show them hope. You try to teach them to care for their body again. Try to teach them structure. Try to teach them to patiently heal relationships.
Some you coax through withdrawal which is like coming off caffeine while being dehydrated after running a marathon while having the flu. Some you beg or threaten or convince to not leave treatment……you cry with them, learn to laugh with them , get to know them and love them…… and some you watch leave just knowing they didn’t get it…that they will continue in the madness….that there’s a good chance they will die. You accept their misguided anger when they focus it on you because they are torn and don’t know why yet. You look them in the eyes knowing that statistically they have a better chance of dying in the next 18 months than they do of getting it if this is their first time in treatment…. but pour everything you can into them anyway.
You never leave work at work because it is your life your passion….your heart … you get texts and messages and try to hook people up with meetings or rehab or just give a word of encouragement. You message and talk to families who’s son or daughter or mom or dad or brother or sister..some ones everything stuck a needle in their arm and died. Then you go to meetings and church and people reach out to you there and you do your best to console or encourage or offer strength through your story.
You steal time from your family to do this…you don’t mean to…..but you don’t know if the text you just got is someone’s last cry for help so you look when it comes. You sometimes sit in the car or in a bathroom and just cry and pray and say ok God this is where you put me but I can’t do it any more…. and then wipe your tears and snot away and go right back at it. You advocate for community awareness, listen to people say let them die their just junkies while you are advocating for Narcan…
Then ….. if your smart… if your lucky…. if you understand enough to know you have to…. you squeeze in a little time to work on your own program. Then you sleep…. if your own demons let you……
Get up lace up your shoes……and go off to fight for someone who is not able to fight for themselves….. for 1/2 of the money you could make elsewhere.
Most people don’t understand .. they say your doing things for show or ego or what ever other twisted reasoning they throw at you.
Some people get sober and move on. Others get sober find solid ground and turn around and start reaching to those still drowning and try and help them to shore.. You will never know the cost some people pay to work in treatment centers….. but we will do it anyway.
May the Peace of Christ be abundantly in your life today.
♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡
Each one of those hearts represents someone I know personally who died from drug abuse.
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
These are the parents who had to bury their children.
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡
These are the children who will grow up without their mommy or daddy.
Kentucky has suffered hard enough, we deserve all the help we can get to help combat what big Pharma has unleashed.
I am forever grateful for places like Addiction Recovery Care. Tim Robinson had a vision from God that did not include dollar signs. His purpose was to help people that suffered as he did. He was obedient and never gave up on his dream. Now that he is successful, folks are upset. Let’s not forget about the grace beds he started with. The money that came out of his own pocket to feed the clients. The amount of time, money and energy it took to transport struggling addicts to treatment.
If it wasn’t for Louisa I would never be where I am at today! This town and the people I have met along the way will forever have a place in my heart.
On a personal level, the opioid epidemic destroyed my life and then led to a restoration better than I could imagine. While my treatment was different than what Mr. Robinson’s facilities offer, I know working in this field is both rewarding and devastating in so many ways. On a professional level as a counselor, I’ve seen and been a small part of other people’s growth in treatment and success in their personal recovery. I have seen former clients struggle with recovery, relapse, overdose, and unfortunately death. Both the positive and the negative have driven my passion to help others and meet them where they are in their own personal recovery. As a community (across the entirety of the state) battling this epidemic with funding for prevention, opportunities for education and treatment, unification, new and more positively focused perspectives, and devotion to advocacy will ultimately be the only way we can begin to turn this ship! While I wish the state of Kentucky had settled for closer to Oklahomas monetary settlement, I know any additional funding that is funneled to help my brothers and sisters find recovery will be money well spent!
When my doctor gave me pain pills hand over fist, jumpstarting my opiate addiction, he had no idea the road that he was starting me down. As my life spiraled further and further out of control, he probably didn’t have an inkling to impact those pills had on me and my family.
The people that work in substance abuse treatment bring home a paycheck, just like every other healthcare worker. We don’t disparage doctors that take care of our family members that have self-imposed heart problems for making money in an area that ranks among the nation’s worst when it comes to obesity. What about the lawyers that make money defending clients from criminal charges that stem from addiction? We don’t bash them either. However, when somebody chooses to help stop the cycle of addiction, we accuse them of using a problem to make money. Tim started Addiction Recovery Care after a battle with alcoholism so that he could help others like him.
I’ve now been in recovery for three years. I’m so very grateful that Tim made the decision to give up everything to start Addiction Recovery Care. I get to go to work every day in a career that I could’ve never imagined to help countless others fight their addiction. I’m grateful that I qualified for Medicaid in a state that sees the benefit in paying for treatment for substance use disorder. My children are grateful that their mother is there to tuck them in at night at drop them off at school in the mornings. My parents finally have a daughter to be proud of, instead of having to worry themselves to death.
Because of the “hand-up” that ARC and KY Medicaid gave me, I now make a good salary and am a tax paying citizen.
Not only am I grateful that Tim heard God’s call to open the facility that saved my life and many more like it, but I’m grateful that he is bold when it comes to fighting for those affected by addiction. I’m grateful that he is always seeking out more ways to help those that are held in bondage.
My name is Justin Hall and I’ve been in recovery for 2 and a half years. Recovery didn’t give me my life back, it gave me a whole new life that I couldn’t have ever imagined!! Had top-notch, world-class treatment not been readily available to me, especially here eastern Kentucky, my life would have fallen victim to this epidemic. The Sanibel House was where I found my heart and God’s grace and mercy. God knew what he was doing when he called Tim Robinson out of his addiction and alcoholism. I’m just one of the hundreds if not thousands of people who have a new life today because of Addiction Recovery Care. A couple things I’ve learned throughout my walk in recovery that are indispensable are spiritual principles that even those who are not in addiction can apply to their lives. Honesty, open mindedness and willingness. Honesty is something that was always tough coming out of addiction but admitting that I needed help and keeping my side of the street clean when I’m wrong helps me to be a better person. I have to be open minded to things that I wasn’t too when I was in my addiction. If I don’t give things or people a chance my perspective always stays the same, therefore I stay the same, and I’m at this place where I want to continuously grow as a person. Isn’t that what life is about? Finally willingness. I have to be willing to do all these things. I have to be willing to accept change. Willing to trust people, and willing to give people second chances just like I’ve received in my life. Just thought I would share a little bit of my experience strength and hope of battling and beating addiction. I’ve found these principles and ideas to seriously revolutionize my life when I put them into practice. If my light can shine the way for just one other addict or person who is struggling. I’ve fulfilled my purpose today. God bless all the addicts in recovery, all the ones who are picking up for the first time, and those who are picking up for the last time. God bless!
Fired, evicted and marriage in collapse because of my drug addiction. I’m glad my family and I were able to find a treatment facility that had a culture
full of love.
2 and half years later, fully employed, housing has been paid every month, marriage completely restored. I’m grateful for Tim Robinson and the ARC organization. They gave me my life back.
925 is the number of people that are currently being served at Addiction Recovery Care. 925. That is 925 people who aren’t dead. That’s 925 set of parents that don’t have to bury their children today. That is 925 children who don’t have to stand next to their parent’s caskets. That’s 925 families who don’t have to mourn the loss of their loved ones, visit them in jail, who aren’t committing crimes within the communities, who are safe, who are being taught life skills, coping skills, anger management, budgeting, criminal thinking patterns, and who are learning to hold themselves accountable.
That’s 925 hearts that are still beating. 925 faces that are learning how to smile. That’s 925 people who are being reminded that they are actual people and that their existence matters.
If I read this article correctly, there was a statement that said, there was just a 2 percent chance that someone could become addicted. We must be that only two percent in America. Oh wait, but we aren’t. Although there is 925 of us, we are just the few that have had the opportunity to get to live another day. Tim has opened up this opportunity for us, because he took a step out in faith, even though his support began so little.
I could care less who profits from these 925 people. Our lives, mean more than putting a price on them. Just as a person, should we not do our best to try to help the other people in this world. This world is filled with so much hatred and defeat, yet, when someone tries to step out and help change a person’s life, we backbite with bitterness?
I see these faces daily, may not all the 925, but I see the faces of the people that ARC serves. They are just like you, just like me. Tim may not be your cup of tea. He’s not asking to be your best friend. Tim is not asking people to understand addiction. Tim is advocating that people matter. Point blank.
I’ve worked with ARC long enough to find out where the heart of ARC lies. It lies within giving people hope.
When a Mother gets to take her child home from the hospital and is sober, that matters.
When a Father gains custody of his son and his child doesn’t have to live in foster care, that matters.
When a man who was athiest is preaching the gospel, that matters.
When a woman goes back to college, that matters.
When a person gets a promotion, that matters.
When parents get to watch their Children open Christmas parents, because they earned that paycheck are now tax paying citizens, that matters.
When you see a person raised their credit score, by paying off old bills, that matters.
When a convicted felon gets an expungement over a charge he got when he was 18, and no longer has to work 60 (+) hours a week for minimum wage, but gets a better job and only has to pull 40 hours and spend time with his family, that matters.
When a child runs up to their parent smiling and jumps in her Mom’s arms at the school pick up line, every day at 3:15 pm….that matters!
When a man finishes his last Hep C treatment, that matters.
When a marriage is restored and a couple is able to sit together at the dinner table, talking about their day at work…that matters.
When a grown adult falls to their knee’s with nothing but humility to give..that matters.
There is no price that can exchange these experiences.
Tim does not take the credit for these examples that I’ve personally witnessed or have witnessed myself. He gives credit, where credit is due. But because he’s choosing daily to push forward in this company and to advocate for human lives, we get the opportunity to be people. We get the opportunity to remember, that we matter.
Please don’t forget the value of human life.
That’s 925 that the judge said rehab or jail. What would you do? Duh, they should get a double dose and be rehabbed in jail.
So many Kentucky families have been personally affected by the opioid crisis. This includes friends and family of mine as well as myself. Too many friends have passed due to the drug epidemic and their families are forever changed with the lifelong heartache that comes with their loss. Now, the drugs are so potent that we have to worry about our children making a mistake or even being involved in an accident that could potentially cost them their lives.
I feel as if this is something we should all care about because of how closely it can affect any of us. Possibly we teach our children not to use drugs or alcohol and hopefully they wont rebel. However, there’s still room for accidental ingestion of drugs containing lethal doses. If for no other reason, that reason alone is enough for me to support recovery and people investing into others helping them in overcoming their addictions and demons.
I myself, am an addict in recovery and have been clean for just over 3 and a half years. Because of my recovery, my family is restored and they live a thankful and peaceful life from where I am now. What this means is, there is one more family that has their son back. It’s one less family that didn’t have to bury a child. One less son that didn’t bury his father. My parents, my son, and my immediate family were all innocent to my mistakes and where they led me. They wouldn’t have deserved the heartache they would have received if addiction had sent me to my grave.
My life was dramatically changed in a program, by 1) surrendering my life to the care of God and 2) taking the tools this recovery center taught me and applying them to my life. Things of the past such as jail and jail programs have proved to be ineffective, but through treatment programs such as ARC’s we see lives changed and families restored constantly! The more life changes made, the more people with experience in addiction there will be to reach out and help others. Adding to that, there will be more people we will have to educate others. In order for us to help the future realize how important it is for them to stay away from drugs, we need people to explain what it’s done in their lives, firsthand. And when our children do slip and find themself at the bottom of a bottle or holding a needle, we need programs here to teach them how to overcome their addiction, the same way my life was changed!
I realize that the more money Kentucky gains from the Purdue settlement, the more programs, education, and resources there will be locally for those that end up where I’ve been. Without resources and without programs, all of us that are not using drugs or alcohol would be hopeless if our loved one fell into addiction.
As an addict in recovery, I’ve been given a purpose to help others regain their lives that addiction has stolen, but there must be a platform for us to do that. There must be a stage. The larger the platform and the larger the stage, the more families we can help! I, from the bottom of my heart, and I can speak for my family as well when I say that we are forever grateful for programs such as ARC and grateful that Tim Robinson and others have answered God’s call for their lives.
It’s recovery month, and there’s no better time to extend my personal gratitude to those that paved the way for me to find restoration in my life and to become a helper to the community, and no longer a hindrance. Thank you to everyone that invests their heart and soul into the life change of others! As more and more awareness grows about addiction and recovery, we will continuously see the rise in positive life change. We will continue to see the impact made by people so thankful to be alive, and that love to help play their part in changing the world for the better!
My name is Joe….for 30 years I was in the madness of addiction. I was as broken as any human can be broken. My addiction was like a curse on my family and anyone who was in my path, I had no idea how to be sober, and had no idea how to live a normal life……..I felt subhuman. I was a lost cause and I was hopeless and helpless. I was in and out of prisons, jails and institutions. 2017 I checked in with my parole officer with multiple years hanging over my head. What my P.O. didn’t realize is that I had been looking for a reason to go back to prison because I couldn’t hack it in the real world. My P.O. looked at me and said ” Joe incarceration isn’t working ” He was right. My life was a revolving door of county jails, prisons and mental institutions. I was sent to Addiction Recovery Care. If you had asked me on day one if treatment would help me…I would have laughed. You see I believed in nothing, no one, not myself or anything else. I am now a tax payer, a father, a son, an employee and the one time “menace to society” is now contributing member of society. There is no doubt in my mind or anyones mind who knew the old Joe – If not for Addiction Recovery Care I would be serving a life sentence or dead. I never found god in a church. Actually I was an atheist who discovered God in A.R.C.
This is crazy to attack a man and his family for trying to save lives, when no one else even tried to stand up and be an be an advocate for addicts, I personally don’t care what he makes as long as he is saving l life’s , and that my friend is what this program is all about. I’m thankful for arc, in so many ways I have seen first hand results and life’s being changed, I wish them nothing but blessings, maybe addiction hasn’t hit your family or someone close to you yet. I have lost a child to addiction it’s the worst pain.
Addiction hit me late in life. I was 30 years old had a family, job, home, cars, vactions, community involvment, etc. I started having severe headaches and a high stress job. I was prescribed opiates and benzos to deal with the pain and stress. I took properly for years and medication levels increased and increased and became a problem. It almost ruined my life. My doctor didnt offer any soulutions and in June of 2014 I found a solution. Addiction Recovery Care they helped me find a way to deal with my pain and stress. My life would not be the same today without Addiction Recovery Care! Its been 5 years and 4 months ago since I walked into one of their treatment facilities. My family is forever greatful for the work that Tim Robinson and Addiction Recovery Care provide to fight the battle of addiction. #addictionisloosing
I just want to give a big thank you to Obama without Obamacare there would be no ARC
LOL
you do know the republicans have tried now for about 9 years to do away with Obamacare
they even have a case in federal court right now which will end up in the supreme court that is backed by Trump and his DOJ
without Obamacare there would be NO health insurance company’s covering substance abuse no expansion of Medicaid which has to cover substance abuse
we will go back in time when only people who can afford treatment(like the Betty Ford clinic) I believe it has been a great thing to help people in fact it’s cheaper than putting them in jail are you going to cure everybody NO but ARC has a great success rate
I’ve been in addiction for over 32 years and I was hopeless and damaged. When I got introduced to ARC it didn’t just change my life it helped me regain a normal life, respect for myself and others. ARC has saved me and my children have there mother back. I have also watched them bend over backwards to help anyone and also the citizens that aren’t in recovery in Louisa. Tim Robinson is doing what God calling is by bringing back the Town of Louisa and people who are broken. I’m so grateful that he is fighting for people who are broken and hurt and don’t know how to get out of it alone. I wish they had someone like him in every state.
Sober for 5+ years! Recovery wins!
Sober 55 years. Never touched it is even better.
I’ll just be real simple here— I should not be alive today because of a 10 year battle in addiction. The last time I used opiates was 2 years ago before I walked in the door of an ARC facility. I was hopeless, miserable, and a broken shell of a person, but GOD used that facility and the people in it to love me back to life. Today I am a daughter a sister and a responsible and productive member of society. I am no longer a danger to myself and others. I will continue to advocate for ARC because, like I said, I shouldn’t even be alive today.
I commit earlier but there is something I wanna share. I’ve been addiction for over 30 years and I started off by a doctor giving me pain meds for a UTI. After that I was in and out of jail and prison for one third of my life. Also overdose nine times with the state paying yes tax payers money. I’m not proud of this but just think all that money if ARC change my life in a few months and I’ve been employed over a year I’m now giving back. So do the math 32 years of living of the state and I’ve been clean close to 2 1/2 years now. Tim Robinson is doing something right and I know what it is helping others go from crisis to careers. So continue Tim to follow God’s journey and let’s continue to help others.
My addiction started with pain medication. However when OxyContin came along I took a steep dive to the rock bottom where I remained for years. When I began taking OxyContin I began to break laws, isolate from family and friends, and destroy everything good in my path. This is when my addiction took over and this led me into a darkness so thick I felt it all around and I eventually was reduced to doing any and all drugs I could. My marriage, my life, my relationships, my professional life, and my peace of mind all ended up in shambles. I was reduced to someone with no means of living, no friends, no family around, and legal trouble after legal trouble. But God! But God raised up a man who prepared the way before me and was raising up addiction centers all around me so I had a safe place to land when I finally hit rock bottom and had nowhere else to turn. This man, Tim Robinson, had God move him while I was neck deep in addiction and he raised up Addiction Recovery Care (ARC). As ARC grew and increased in the knowledge of how addiction is to be curved, managed, and obliterated, I continued to fall deeper and deeper until one day I ended up on ARCs doorstep. I was lost, alone, broken, and without any further hope for any future. My mind and my life completely destroyed, I was over the course of about a year loved back to life. I’m thankful for that man, Tim Robinson, his organization (ARC), and all the people working for this organization (ARC). We need more organizations like this and less life destroying drugs on the street. I believe it would benefit to make drug companies pay to help curve the destruction they are causing when they produce substances like OxyContin and market it deceptively. And as Tim Robinson said, “killers”, push such substances into our communities knowing thousands upon thousands will die, yet do not care the destruction they are bringing upon the lives of many. It is time they are stopped. It is time to make them all pay for the damages they have caused and help turn things back around. If we could have gotten more money for our state to raise up more addiction recovery centers and increase our education on addiction, we could save more lives just like my life was saved and the lives of many of my friends I have met along the recovery road. Recovery is a possibility, but not only a possibility, a reality now. I see it everyday in the lives of all my new friends. I see it in my own life now as well, being employed by the same company that rescued me.
I thank God that there are people out there like Tim Robinson who are speaking for those of us who Jesus referred to as the “least of these”. My life was destroyed by what started with Oxycontin use in the late 90’s. I don’t blame Perdue Pharma. I blame myself. I’m a sin junkie (recovering by the Grace of God). But after working in the treatment field for years and having now 3.5 years abstinent from all drugs after going to an ARC facility, I can say I’ve seen literally hundreds if not thousands of people whose life was destroyed by starting on prescribed medications. Perdue Pharma’s prescribing practices wreaked havoc in Appalachia.
What I know is there’s a solution. Jesus Christ is the solution. I went to jail, department of corrections, rehabs. But Jesus is the solution to my problem of sin.
No matter what one’s opinion is, addiction is terrible and once it’s in one’s life, all rational decision making is out the window. I needed someone to speak up for me and assist me in getting help. Bless those people. Bless Tim Robinson and all those who are part of ARC. It wasn’t just drug treatment. They stuck by me when I went to jail (Brandon L. & Pastor Kyle Burchett). They put up with me when I acted immature after getting off the drugs and lacking healthy emotional regulation. They gave me a chance to be the man who God says I am. They loved me back to life.
I hear many of the comments made talk about the opioid epidemic and how it has ruined lives and killed so many and how they are thankful they got clean. I have 11 years in recovery and I never once asked or wished to live 20+ years in addiction. My addiction came from a man in a white coat and never once told me of how my life would be changed when I took the pills he gave me. I am now a Social Worker and I do understand the disease of addiction and before I became what many people refer to as an addict I was a smart, normal, husband and father who was looking toward to a life and future. That future, however was taken away from me and if any of you out there thinks the same as me, that the ones who really were duped are the real victims of the legal drug pushers(big pharmaceutical) and the ones who should be paid for their tormented years they survived through their addiction are the ones who it actually impacted. The survivors and their families whom some still live in abject poverty and scrape by daily because thier husband or wife isn’t there to raise thier kids and the only incomes they have is what they can take and scrape to get by. Now you tell me who is getting duped!!!! I get so mad that those 20 years were stolen from me and I did not have a choice in the matter. If that doctor in his white coat would have told me the consequences of taking that first pill would be I’d have walked out and never went back. The doctor wrote them but big pharma gave him the incentives with promises of free vacations, and bonuses if they wrote them. People in recovery need to wake up and hold the people accountable for their part in providing the means of their addiction. I, and the ones who are still alive out of the opioid epidemic need their own day in court and be a voice for the addict who survived and not for the states, or recovery centers. Thank GOD for rehabs but please give addicts a real helping hand and stop paying the states to stick millions and millions in the pockets of these corporate treatment centers.
It’s great that so many of you have beat your addictions. Stay strong. Tim has helped a lot of you in that respect. That being said, I’m not standing with him on all of his religious beliefs. Please, read and study your bibles. Be honest with what it says. One example: baptism. If you are honest, you will see that the Bible clearly states that we must be baptised in order to be saved. We can’t be saved and then maybe get baptised later. Don’t take my word for it. Study it. Another: the covering. The Bible clearly states that a woman should cover her head when praying or prophesying. The hair is a covering, but not all that should be worn while worshipping. Read 1 Cor. 11:6. It’s easy to see that it’s talking about the hair and the covering as two different things. (This verse also says that women shouldn’t cut their hair.) Please read it. Please be honest…for your soul.
Baptism is a conclusive act of obedience and witness to the world that we are Christ’s, but nowhere does The Bible say it is a requirement for salvation. I believe in it whole-heartedly and I think anyone who is truly saved should be baptized, if at all possible. Consider the thief on the cross who had no opportunity for baptism or church membership. Yet on his confession, paradise was secured. Jesus said to him, ‘Today shalt thou be with me in paradise’ (Luke 23:43).” He was never baptized, but I believe he reached Heaven that day.
Not a vote of support for ARC, just my two cents.
I respectfully disagree. There is so much evidence in the NT that proves baptism is a requirement before we are saved. I don’t understand how anyone could honestly think otherwise if they have studied it. The thief on the cross was never baptised, but it was Christ himself, hanging there next to the thief, that made this possible. We are to follow the apostles doctrine and that clearly states that we are not saved until we are baptised. Please, go back and study baptism again. I think you will change your mind.
I ask you all to please study things for yourself and be honest with yourself. Never take only a preachers word……..or my word as the truth. There is a reason why preachers ask you to take out your bibles and follow along. Preachers can make mistakes too.
Some preachers only preach what people want to hear and skip over what people don’t like to hear. Study things for yourself. Be honest.
To “Friend” – Please don’t assume that I have not studied my Bible. I have studied for years. You contradicted yourself in your comments here. That same Jesus “that made it possible” for the thief to be saved without being baptized is the very same Jesus that makes it possible for us to be saved, even if we don’t or can’t be baptized. What about those who accept the Lord on their death beds, or shortly before dying, and don’t have the time or health to be baptized? Are you saying they died lost? I know of a great number of wonderful people that accepted Christ that, according to your view, must have wasted their breath on their confession and died in sin. Nowhere in the New Testament does it say baptism is a requirement for salvation.C
Hey matt…how much do you and Mr Robinson make a year helping people….i know I pay a lot of state income tax .and would Jesus put the arc rulebreakers out on the street so they can sleep on the riverbank and eat out of trash cans?.i doubt it .I am for helping people get off drugs but recovering addicts should not be allowed to go to school from my tax dollars for free where as if my drug free law abiding kid wants to go I have to pay for that also….so we the working citizens are paying your salaries,come on guys ,,how much you make a year
Great point!! Too many left on the street for not meeting “criteria”. Seriously??
There are more homeless ppl in Louisa now than ever!!
I was brought up that if you were going to help someone you did it out if the goodness of your heart. ARC and their employees are doing it for a profit. I doubt you organization is non profit.