Drug & Alcohol Rehab For Portage Indiana

Portage is a beautiful city full of natural wonders that sits on the southern shores of Lake Michigan. Located in northwestern Indiana, the city of Portage is just a 45-minute drive from Chicago, making it a great place for those who want to enjoy the great outdoors without getting too far away from big-city living.

However, saying that you live in Portage, Indiana may not mean the same thing to everyone. This is because there’s Portage (the city), which resides in Portage Township; the latter is comprised of the city of Portage and Ogden Dunes. Both Portage and Portage Township fall within Porter County and account for roughly 22% of the county’s population. As of the latest census, the city of Portage had 38,327 residents.

In addition to its amazing lakeside views and riverwalk dunes, Portage also enjoys a stable economy. The median household income in Portage is $71,317, which is higher than the state average, though more than $10,000 lower than the median for all of Porter County. The city also fares relatively well when it comes to staving off poverty, as it has a poverty rate of 11.4%, compared to 12.6% across all of Indiana. [1]

One would assume that the strong economy and natural beauty of Portage would mean that instances of substance abuse are uncommon, but unfortunately, this is not the case. Addiction is a common problem throughout much of Porter County, and it has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic downturn. Based on the most recent data, alcohol and marijuana are among the most commonly abused drugs in Portage, though prescription opioids, cocaine, meth, and heroin are not far behind.

Continue reading to learn about substance abuse and addiction in Portage, Indiana. If you or a loved one are fighting addiction in Portage or the surrounding area, you can always reach out to Addiction Rehab Centers for help.

Drug and Alcohol Addiction in Portage

Like the majority of cities in Indiana, Portage depends on the county and state to manage its substance abuse data. Porter County recordkeepers collect data from law enforcement, hospitals, rehab clinics, coroners, and mortuaries to provide the latest information related to drug or alcohol arrests, as well as overdoses and deaths related to substance abuse. While this helps the state of Indiana better manage substance abuse and create sweeping programs to address the underlying causes of addiction, it also means that the data in cities like Portage gets combined with the data in other parts of the county — including cities like Valparaiso, as well as smaller towns like Chesterton and Burns Harbor. Still, Portage is the largest city in the county and accounts for nearly a quarter of the county population, so looking at the data for all of Porter County is very useful when evaluating the current state of substance abuse in the city of Portage.

Deaths caused by substance abuse are tragic, but they are also one of the primary ways that city, county, and state officials measure the severity of substance abuse in different areas. As the most severe consequence of addiction, death does not account for all cases, but it is an important factor to consider. Overdose deaths have remained consistently high in Porter County, though they reached a peak during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. [2] The table below shows how deaths involving all drugs (including alcohol) have changed in the area over the past few years in Porter County:

*Data for 2023 is provisional and only accounts for the first quarter of the year.

Despite deaths declining in 2018 and 2019, they stayed relatively high compared to the total population of Porter County for all years evaluated. Between 2016 and 2021, overdose deaths increased by approximately 10.6%. Since 2021, deaths have trended downward. That said, the data for 2023 is still preliminary and does not provide a completely accurate picture of the most recent substance abuse deaths. As a result, we cannot state with confidence that deaths are declining in Portage or the surrounding area.

However, deaths are just one figure that should be considered when evaluating substance abuse. It’s also important to consider non-lethal overdoses. In fact, overdoses that do not result in death are arguably more helpful because they account for a much larger percentage of all overdoses. This data can be extracted from hospital discharges and emergency department visits in Porter County where drug or alcohol overdoses have been reported.

The table below shows the hospital discharges and emergency department visits involving overdoses in Porter County between 2016 and 2023: [3]

*Data for 2023 is provisional and only accounts for the first quarter of the year.

Much like overdose deaths in Porter County, non-lethal overdoses have stayed high over the past few years. Between 2016 and 2021, hospital discharges and emergency department visits involving overdoses increased by 11.1%. This is not as severe as the figures reported in other counties, but it still shows an upward trend in drug and alcohol overdoses, one that peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like overdose deaths, non-lethal overdoses have declined since 2021. But once again, the data for 2023 is still provisional, so we cannot draw any conclusions about whether or not this downward trend will continue in 2024 and beyond.

Types of Substance Abuse in Portage

Alcohol is the most abused substance in Porter County by far, and this has not changed substantially over the years. Still, it’s important to see what kind of drugs are abused throughout the county, and how trends in substance abuse have evolved in Portage and the rest of the region. Here is the latest data from Indiana’s Next Level Recovery program showing the arrests involving different kinds of addictive substances between 2016 and 2023 in Porter County:

*Statistics for 2023 are still preliminary and do not account for the entire calendar year.

In contrast to deaths and overdoses, arrests generally declined in Porter County during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Aside from 2020, every year saw more than 2,000 arrests involving addictive substances, with several years seeing nearly 3,000 arrests. More importantly, many years saw arrests involving more than one substance. In 2018 and 2022, alcohol was involved in almost every arrest, with many of the arrests involving both alcohol and marijuana. It’s also important to point out that drug paraphernalia arrests were typically much higher several years ago, and have since been in decline. Drug paraphernalia arrests are often linked to the abuse of heroin or meth.