Drug & Alcohol Rehab For Angola, Indiana

Angola, Indiana is a small city that resides within the Pleasant Township of Steuben County. It also serves as the county seat of Steuben County, and accounts for more than 27% of the county’s total population with 9,456 residents as of the latest census. Despite its small size, the city of Angola serves as a prominent commercial hub in northeastern Indiana, as well as the cultural center of the county. Angola is home to Trine University, as well as various historic landmarks and buildings.

Sadly, Angola has fallen on hard times in recent years. Individuals, families, and the city as a whole have struggled with economic uncertainty. The cost of living is relatively high compared to other cities in the region, though the median household income in the city is $58,627, which is roughly 13.4% lower than the median across all of Indiana. Additionally, the poverty rate is 14.5%, compared to 12.6% statewide. [1]

While the small population means that Angola and all of Steuben County don’t get as much coverage related to substance abuse, it is still a growing problem in the area. The anxiety of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unstable local economy have only exacerbated the ongoing addiction crisis in Angola, Indiana. Sadly, with few local resources to help stop the spread of substance abuse, the city and county continue to see more overdoses and deaths each year.

Based on the most recent data, marijuana, meth, and alcohol are the most commonly abused drug by far in Angola. The city also sees the abuse of other substances, such as prescription opioids, cocaine, and heroin.

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

Drug and Alcohol Addiction in Angola

Like the vast majority of small and medium-sized cities in Indiana, Angola refers all responsibilities related to the collection of substance abuse data to the county. Steuben County collects and aggregates this data from all municipalities in the county, which means that data from Angola is combined with the data from other towns, townships, and cities, like Hamilton and Fremont. While this does dilute the data to a certain degree, Angola is the largest city in the county by far, with the majority of the county taken up by rural land and small towns. Additionally, it’s estimated that more than half of all substance abuse cases recorded in Steuben County originate in the city of Angola. Thus, evaluating county-level data is one of the best ways to understand the severity of the substance abuse crisis at the city level. 

Fatal overdoses, or overdoses that result in death, make up a relatively small percentage of total overdoses in Steuben County. This is normal, as non-fatal overdoses are far more common in virtually all municipalities that have emergency response services. Despite the small figures, it’s important to evaluate fatal overdoses and how this data changes from year to year. Overdose deaths have not always shown a recordable trend in Steuben County from year to year, though the number of deaths recorded in the most recent years is higher today than it was just a few years ago. [2] The table below shows how deaths involving all drugs (including alcohol) have changed in the area over the past few years:

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

Between 2016 and 2022, fatal overdoses in Steuben County increased by 50%. However, the dataset is small, and 2022 happened to have the most overdose deaths of any year since 2016 at 6. However, the vast majority of years have recorded 4 deaths or less. While 2023’s data is still provisional, it may indicate that this consistency in low death counts may continue in the years to come. However, it’s too early to draw a firm conclusion, and with the comparatively high number of deaths recorded in 2022 alone, it’s difficult to say whether or not the county will experience a change for the worse.

Once again, fatal overdoses tend to be a very small percentage of total overdoses, and this holds true for Angola and the rest of Steuben County. As a result, non-fatal overdoses are often a more accurate barometer for measuring changes in substance abuse over time. Additionally, comparing fatal and non-fatal overdoses can provide very clear evidence of the efficacy or inefficacy of programs to combat substance abuse and addiction.

The simplest way to analyze non-fatal overdoses is through hospital discharges and emergency department visits involving overdoses. The table below shows the relevant overdose data in Steuben County between 2016 and 2023: [3]

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

Between 2016 and 2022, Steuben County recorded a slight decline in non-fatal annual overdoses of approximately 5.3%. 2023’s data is still provisional, but it shows even fewer non-fatal overdoses than in 2022, indicating that overdoses are declining rapidly. This is most evident when looking at the worst year for non-fatal overdoses, which was 2017. Since then, this figure has generally gone down.

At first glance, this would make it seem as though substance abuse is not as prevalent in Steuben County as it once was. However, it’s important to look at fatal and non-fatal overdoses together. In 2016, there were a total of 60 recorded overdoses, of which 6.6% were fatal. By 2022, there were a total of 59 recorded overdoses, of which 10.1% were fatal. If we examine the provisional data for 2023 using the same parameters, the situation appears to be worsening Assuming no changes are made to the data, 2023 saw a total of 39 total overdoses in Steuben County, of which 10.3% were fatal. This means that fewer people are overdosing in the county, but a greater percentage of drug and alcohol overdoses are resulting in death. In many cases, this indicates that people are mixing more drugs, illicit and powerful drugs like fentanyl are becoming easier to obtain, and/or local programs and resources to prevent death are proving ineffective or insufficient.

Types of Substance Abuse in Angola

In 2023 and 2024, marijuana, meth, and alcohol were the most abused drugs in Steuben County. This is based on arrest and re-arrest records, which give a fairly accurate picture of the different types of substance abuse in a given 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 2024 in Steuben County:

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

The total number of arrests involving addictive substances has been on the rise in Steuben County since 2016. Between 2016 and 2022 (the most recent year with finalized data), annual arrests increased by 54.1%. Data for 2023 and 2024 indicates that arrests have only increased more recently, though this data is still provisional.

When examining the types of drugs being abused, the county has seen a substantial increase in marijuana and meth arrests since 2016. Alternatively, alcohol still results in a high number of arrests, but this figure has been decreasing over the same period. Comparatively, cocaine and prescription opioid arrests are far less common, but their abuse has increased at various times, particularly during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, drug paraphernalia arrests — which are most often associated with heroin abuse — increased by 33.9% between 2016 and 2022.