Is California’s Oversight of Addiction Treatment That Bad?

AUDIO – ASK THE PATIENTS –

Sept. 29, 2024 – Brandon Nelson, discharged from a Laguna Beach psychiatric facility and went to an unlicensed Sovereign Health “sober living home mental health facility” in San Clemente. Nelson failed to get his medications on time “so that Sovereign could supply the prescription order from a pharmacy they owned,” suffered another psychic break … Left alone, Nelson hanged himself.

Officials here on the Rehab Riviera have been working — for years — to convince officials there in Sacramento that, truly, California’s addiction treatment industry is plagued by scammers while state oversight is nearly non-existent, and those who allow it to continue have blood on their hands. Yes, lawmakers have passed new laws — which no one really enforces — but they’ve rejected myriad bills that could have professionalized the treatment system and set more watchful eyes on scofflaws.

“Maddening” does not begin to capture the level of frustration. But there glitters, in the near distance, a slim ray hope, one that SoCal officials await with the anticipation kids might reserve for Christmas morning: A report by the California State Auditor!