Drug & Alcohol Rehab For Madison, Indiana

Even though Madison is not the biggest city in Indiana by a long shot, it has made its mark on the history and culture of the state. With a population of 12,357, Madison is home to Indiana’s first railroad, as well as a historic downtown area. The city of Madison has also been the subject and setting of various films and television series. Seated along the beautiful Ohio River, Madison is situated in a densely populated region on the southern border of Indiana.

Madison also serves as the county seat of Jefferson County and accounts for roughly 36.3% of the total county population. According to the latest census data, the economy in Madison has struggled in recent years. The median household income in the city is $53,113, far below the state median ($66,785). The poverty rate is also alarmingly high in Madison at 18.2% — compared to 12.6% statewide. This means that nearly 1 in 5 residents of Madison live below the poverty line. [1]

While high poverty rates are not the only reason substance abuse has risen in Madison and the rest of Jefferson County, they are one contributing factor. Compared to the relatively sparse population, Madison sees high rates of overdoses, deaths, and addiction-related arrests. Based on the most recent data, heroin, meth, and marijuana, are the most commonly abused drugs in Madison. The city also sees the abuse of other substances, such as alcohol, prescription opioids, and cocaine.

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

Drug and Alcohol Addiction in Madison

Madison depends on Jefferson County to collect, manage, and analyze its substance abuse data — from non-fatal overdoses to response programs. This is very common in Indiana since counties can often pull more resources from various municipalities and work with the state to identify potential areas for improvement. It also means, however, that substance abuse data from Madison is mixed in with the data from other nearby towns and cities like Hanover and Graham Township. Nonetheless, Madison is the largest city in the county, and it’s estimated that at least 60% of the county’s substance abuse cases originate in Madison and its suburbs. As a result, analyzing county-wide data is an effective method for identifying the state of drug and alcohol addiction in the city of Madison.

Fortunately, fatal overdoses are relatively uncommon in Jefferson County, but this is partially due to the small population. When accounting for the population, the number of people dying from overdoses is high and has continued to rise in recent years. [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, the number of annual overdose deaths increased by 350%. While some of this can be attributed to increased overdoses recorded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, fatal overdoses have been on the rise for years. And, though deaths have shown some decline since the peak in 2021, they are still far higher than they were in 2016, and very high for a county with a population of just over 33,000 people. 

It’s important to consider fatal overdoses, but non-fatal overdoses typically provide a more accurate picture of substance abuse in a city or county. These can be easily calculated based on the number of hospital discharges and emergency department visits involving overdoses. The table below shows the relevant overdose data in Jefferson County between 2016 and 2023: [3]

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

There’s a less constant trend in non-fatal overdoses, which also peaked in 2021. That said, non-fatal overdoses declined by 25.2% between 2016 and 2022. Provisional data from 2023 indicates that non-fatal overdoses could continue to trend downward. However, it’s important to consider that overdoses are generally declining in Jefferson County while fatal overdoses are increasing. This means that a much higher percentage of people experiencing overdoses are dying as a result. To put this in perspective, just 2.1% of total overdoses were fatal in 2016. By 2022, fatal overdoses accounted for roughly 11.2% of all overdoses in Jefferson County.

Types of Substance Abuse in Madison

In 2023 and 2024, heroin, meth, and marijuana were the most abused drugs in Jefferson County. We can extract this information from arrest and re-arrest records, which often show trends related to the types of drugs being abused in a given municipality. 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 Jefferson County:

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

The total number of addiction-related arrests has varied from year to year in Jefferson County, with no clear upward or downward trend. Cocaine and prescription opioid arrests have remained consistently low in recent years, while marijuana and meth arrests have increased dramatically. Similarly, alcohol arrests have increased, though Jefferson County is somewhat unique insofar as it sees fewer instances of alcohol arrests and abuse than many other counties throughout the state. Finally, arrests involving drug paraphernalia increased substantially between 2016 and 2022, and these arrests are most often linked to heroin abuse.