Drug & Alcohol Rehab For Mount Vernon, Indiana

Mount Vernon is the westernmost city in Indiana and is located in the southwestern corner of the state along the Ohio River, which separates Indiana and Kentucky. It is the city with the easiest access to both Kentucky (directly to the south) and Illinois (to the west). Despite its relatively small population (approximately 6,355), Mount Vernon serves as the seat of Posey County. It also resides within Black Township and makes up a small part of the Greater Evansville Metropolitan Area.

Mount Vernon is perhaps best known for its beautiful and historic architecture, including its magnificent courthouse. And even though it may not boast a large population, Mount Vernon is a hub for manufacturing and energy. The local economy is primarily driven by crude oil extraction and plastics manufacturing, but it is also one of the largest ports for transporting coal in the entire country.

These industries have helped keep the local economy relatively strong and stable over the years. The current median household income in Mount Vernon is $61,527, though this still falls well short of the state median of $70,051. However, Mount Vernon also enjoys a lower cost of living than many larger cities like Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. The poverty rate is slightly above average in Mount Vernon, resting at 12.8% (compared to 12.3% across all of Indiana). [1]

While it would seem that Mount Vernon is a great place to live and raise a family, it has struggled with a silent killer that has not received much attention until recent years: substance abuse. Addiction is on the rise in Mount Vernon and the rest of Posey County, and the data shows that without intervention, overdoses and deaths may continue to increase.

Based on the most recent data, marijuana and meth are the two most commonly abused substances in Mount Vernon, Indiana. The city also sees the abuse of other addictive substances, such as alcohol, prescription opioids, cocaine, and heroin.

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

Drug and Alcohol Addiction in Mount Vernon

Posey County handles substance abuse data on behalf of Mount Vernon and all other municipalities in the county. This means that city- or town-specific data is not available. That said, Mount Vernon accounts for just over 1 out of every 4 people in the county, and as the largest and only incorporated city in the county, Mount Vernon contributes the highest number of arrests, overdoses, and deaths related to addictive substances. This means that evaluating the county data is the most efficient and practical way to analyze the severity of the substance abuse crisis in the city of Mount Vernon.

Fatal overdoses are always one of the first data points we look at when evaluating addiction in a given region. There are certainly other factors to consider, but an extremely high or low number of deaths can help shed light on what kinds of substances are being abused and to what extent. In the case of Mount Vernon and Posey County, the death counts have been fortunately low most years. That said, the deaths are so low that it’s difficult to extract any kind of specific trend. [2] The table below shows how deaths involving all drugs (including alcohol) have changed in the county over the past few years.

*Data for 2023 and 2024 is provisional and may be subject to change. The last date that data was collected was 09/04/2024.

As you can see from the table above, fatal overdoses hovered between 2 and 4 per year between 2016 and 2021. This is not surprising considering the small population of Posey County. However, there was a startling uptick in fatal overdoses in 2022. The provisional data for 2023 and 2024 may indicate that 2022 was an anomaly, though it is still too early to make a firm conclusion. The data will likely be updated in the near future to provide a clearer picture of the most recent addiction fatalities in Posey County.

It is often more helpful to examine non-fatal overdoses, particularly in low-population areas. Non-fatal overdoses are far more common than fatal overdoses, so it is easier to examine the data and determine what, if any, trends exist. This data is collected via hospital discharges and emergency department visits involving addictive substances. Based on our research, there has been an upward trend (albeit a not very consistent one) in non-fatal overdoses in Posey County since 2016. The table below shows the relevant overdose data in Posey County between 2016 and 2024: [3]

*Data for 2023 and 2024 is provisional and may be subject to change. The last date that data was collected was 09/04/2024.

While the non-fatal overdose data for Posey County offers more insight and higher quantities than fatal overdoses, the number of annual overdoses shows no consistent pattern between 2016 and 2024. 2021 recorded the lowest number of non-fatal overdoses of any year at just 22, while 2019 recorded the highest at 48. When just looking at the trajectory for the finalized data, non-fatal overdoses technically increased by 43% between 2016 and 2022. However, the provisional data for 2023 and 2024 indicates that non-fatal overdoses may once again be declining.

We must also look at the relationship between fatal overdoses and non-fatal overdoses. In 2016, there were a total of 25 overdoses (fatal plus non-fatal) in Posey County. Just 8% of those overdoses were fatal. By 2022, there were a total of 41 overdoses, 19.5% of which were fatal. However, 2022 was also the only year to have such a high number of fatal overdoses, so it may not provide a fair or accurate representation of how fatal overdoses have increased in Posey County. This makes it difficult to evaluate the relationship between fatal and non-fatal overdoses during this period.

Types of Substance Abuse in Mount Vernon

In 2023 and 2024, marijuana and meth were the most abused substances in Posey County. In most counties in Indiana, alcohol is the most abused substance, typically followed by marijuana and meth. In Posey County, alcohol is less commonly abused when compared to many other counties in the area. However, it’s important to note that this is based on arrest and re-arrest data. This kind of data does provide an excellent overview of substance abuse trends, particularly when it comes to the type of drugs and substances in people’s systems and possessions. Unfortunately, this data does not account for individuals who abuse addictive substances and evade arrest.

In any case, here is the latest data from Indiana’s Next Level Recovery program showing the arrests involving different kinds of addictive substances between 2016 and 2024 in Posey County:

*Statistics for 2023 and 2024 are still preliminary and do not account for the entire calendar year(s).

While alcohol was the most abused substance in Posey County in 2016, it had already been surpassed by marijuana and meth by 2019. In fact, the number of arrests involving alcohol declined every year except in 2024 (and the data for 2024 is not finalized yet). Between 2016 and 2024, total arrests declined to an all-time low in 2020 before rising to an all-time high in 2023. Over this period, cocaine arrests increased slightly, while opioid arrests increased at a faster pace. However, the largest increases were in both marijuana and meth arrests. In 2024 alone, marijuana was involved in well over half of all arrests involving addictive substances. Lastly, drug paraphernalia arrests have also increased dramatically since 2016, and these arrests are most often related to meth or heroin abuse.