VIDEO – HULU HUSTLE –
Feb. 29, 2025 – Hawaii’s chronic shortage of treatment resources may be one reason mainland drug rehab recruiters, known as “body brokers,” are working to lure patients to unregulated treatment in California.
One mother told Hawaii News Now that her son flew to California on his own after unsuccessful treatment here, so the recruiters may be finding willing customers in Hawaii unable to find treatment. She said while he found quality treatment, he also had to be rescued from a clean and sober house where drug use was rampant.
A former employee of the same company represented by the two recruiters who were in Hawaii last weekend said the business model of the unregulated rehabs was to keep addicts in ineffective treatment as long as possible to rake in insurance payments.
One of the recruiters, a young woman named Brittany, who said she’d been treated at the center she was representing, said that was why people were willing to leave.
“There’s not very many programs in here in Oahu,” she said in a recorded phone call.
