Drug & Alcohol Rehab For Jasper, Indiana

Jasper is nearing its 100th anniversary as an incorporated city in Indiana, and it is one of the few major cities in the state that still relies heavily on agriculture. Notable for its beautiful lakes, waterways, and golf courses, Jasper is best known as the home of the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame. Located northeast of Evansville and Northwest of Louisville, Jasper is among the largest cities in southwest Indiana. As of the latest census, Jasper boasts a population of 16,703, which accounts for roughly 38% of Dubois County. Jasper also serves as the county seat.

Despite large swaths of land dedicated to agriculture, the local economy has a strong foundation in manufacturing and retail, particularly wood-based manufacturing and furniture-making. And though Jasper has a slightly older population than many other cities in Indiana, the population has continued to grow most years, which has helped revitalize the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city has a poverty rate that is 0.4% lower than the state average, and a median household income of $62,657 — compared to $66,785 statewide. Residents enjoy relatively high incomes, particularly when looking at the cost of living in Jasper, which is roughly 15% lower than other cities in the region. [1]

Despite the growing population, natural beauty, and positive economic outlook in Jasper, the city still struggles with an ongoing crisis: substance abuse. In fact, substance abuse has been an increasingly troubling issue in all of Dubois County for the last decade. Based on the most recent data, alcohol, marijuana, and meth are among the most commonly abused drugs in Jasper, though heroin, prescription opioids, and cocaine are not far behind.

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

Drug and Alcohol Addiction in Jasper

Jasper doesn’t collect its own substance abuse data, so the responsibility falls on Dubois County and the state of Indiana. This is not uncommon in Indiana, as most small and mid-sized cities rely on county-level experts to collect, aggregate, and analyze data related to addiction and substance abuse. However, this also means that the data for Jasper is mixed with data from nearby towns and cities, including Huntingburg and Ferdinand. Still, Jasper accounts for a large percentage of the county population, and local coroner’s reports indicate that as many as 60% of all overdose deaths recorded in the county originate in the city of Jasper.

Though overdose deaths are not the only metric used to measure the severity of a substance abuse crisis, they can shed light on how many people are succumbing to addiction in a given city or region. In Dubois County, overdose deaths have varied significantly from one year to the next, with no clear pattern to indicate an upward or downward trend. [2] The table below shows how deaths involving all drugs (including alcohol) have changed in the area over the past few years:

As of July 2024, all but three counties in Indiana have reported overdose death cases for 2023. Dubois County has yet to report any of its data for 2023, which makes it more difficult to evaluate how overdose deaths have changed more recently. When only evaluating the number of annual deaths between 2016 and 2022, it would appear that overdose deaths are in decline. This 6-year period saw a decline in overdose deaths of 71.4%. However, overdose deaths spiked during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and have since gone down again. This may indicate that the county has increased its efforts to prevent overdose deaths, but this metric is not enough on its own to evaluate the severity of addiction in Jasper and the rest of the county.

Fortunately, Dubois County has provided provisional data related to non-fatal overdoses in 2023. This matters because non-fatal overdose data is often a more accurate metric than overdose deaths. It can also be used in tandem with overdose death data to evaluate the efficacy of urgent response teams and opioid response efforts. The table below shows the relevant overdose data in Dubois County between 2016 and 2023: [3]

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

Non-fatal overdoses show a clear upward trajectory in Dubois County between 2016 and 2022. During this period, annual non-fatal overdoses increased by 627%. The data for 2023 is still provisional, though it could indicate that total overdoses (fatal and non-fatal) are in decline. Nonetheless, the rapid increase in non-fatal overdoses shows that the substance abuse crisis has been getting worse over the past few years. Non-fatal overdoses nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022 alone. However, it remains to be seen what (if any) changes are made to the 2023 data to know if overdoses will actually decline from the heights reached during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Types of Substance Abuse in Jasper

In 2023, alcohol, marijuana, and meth were the most abused drugs in Dubois County. A comparatively small percentage of substance abusers succumb to their addiction each year, while a larger number experience non-fatal overdoses. To track what kinds of substances are being abused and get an even clearer picture of the number of people struggling with addiction, it’s also vital to examine arrest and re-arrest data involving drugs and alcohol. These arrests can range from simple possession of illicit substances to DUIs. 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 Dubois County:

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

Total arrests related to addictive substances have only declined slightly since 2016. Preliminary data for 2023 and 2024 may indicate that arrests are once again on the rise, but it is still too early to know for sure. What can be deduced from the available data is that alcohol arrests are in substantial decline. Between 2016 and 2022, annual alcohol arrests decreased by approximately 28.5%. Similarly, drug paraphernalia arrests — which are most often associated with heroin abuse — decreased by 13.5%. Over the same period, cocaine and prescription opioid arrests saw very little change. However, arrests involving marijuana and meth have risen by 34.6% and 62.3%, respectively.

Despite the decline in alcohol arrests, alcohol remains one of the most commonly abused substances in Jasper and all of Dubois County. Based on the available arrest data, both marijuana and meth will surpass (or have already surpassed) alcohol as the most commonly abused substances in the county. There has been a rapid increase in meth abuse in particular.