Recovery Awareness Day

At my job in assessments (at an addiction treatment facility) I work directly across the hall from our Director of Marketing and our Director of Fund Development. Let me tell ya, these people always have their finger on the pulse of what's going on in the addiction/recovery community. Because of them and the awesome organization I work for, I was able to join them for Recovery Awareness Day at the Georgia State Capitol last Thursday.

In all my seven and one half years of being in my state's great capital city, I've never actually been to the official building. But being the veteran Atlantan that I am, I deftly boarded MARTA and met Marlene and Lisa downtown at approximately 8:30. It was VERY important that we got on time; not only because we needed to register but I was also hoping to score one of the Recovery Awareness T-shirts that were available on a limited time basis. 

After getting our nametags and shirt (me), and after talking to a cute guy (me) who was also a counselor and NOT an addictions patient (important), we went upstairs to claim our seats in the balcony of the Georgia House of Representatives, almost running into Georgia governor Sonny Perdue on the way up. I was under orders from C-tina to tell him not to sign this new education bill that negatively affects teachers in some way (I didn't really understand it) but didn't get close enough. So we made it upstairs, and sat and sat and waited and waited. Meanwhile, the session is called to order, and random people got up to make speeches about like it being MLK's real birthday that day, or it being the 101st anniversary of some women's fraternity. Throughout which, all of the representatives are talking to each other and not listening. It was kind of weird, but I guess important? I was kind of wondering how this was going to work when our presentation was made. Hmmm...

Then Rep. Neal (not totally sure why him or what district he was from) stood up and announced our special day and asked for people to give their attention to the balcony, where we were standing by this point and pretty much filled up all the seats. Everyone started clapping, which was awesome. Then he read off some of the stats that the Georgia Addiction Counselors Association had prepared for this meeting. Here's a couple of them:

-A child who get through age 21 without using illegal drugs, smoking or abusing alcohol is virtually certain never to do so.

-It is estimated that over 540,000 Georgians needed treatment for an alcohol problem in 2007, but did not receive it.

-That every dollar spent on addiction treatment returns a $4-$7 reduction  in the cost of drug-related crime. With some programs, the total savings can exceed costs by a 12:1 ratio. 

-Approximately 80% of Georgia's 55,500 prison inmates are alcohol or drug abusers, yet less then 10% receive treatment.

So obviously, it was pretty important and special to get to be a part of educating our legislators about addiction issues and the need for good treatment in our state! Even if it was only for about ten minutes of fame....and a T-shirt. And the capitol building was really cool. My favorite capitol building is still the one in Lincoln, NE, but alas, I digress.

Don't sign that bill Sonny....