Drug & Alcohol Rehab For Richmond Indiana

Located near the Indiana-Ohio border along Interstate 40, Richmond is one of the largest cities in eastern Indiana. Even though it serves as the county seat of Wayne County, Richmond is best known for its connection to jazz music. Often called the “cradle of recorded jazz,” the city was home to some of the first-ever jazz music recordings, as well as recordings by world-renowned musicians like Louis Armstrong.

Despite its significance in music history, Richmond is a city that has struggled in recent years. Since 1990, the population of Richmond has declined by about 10%. The latest census recorded a population of 35,513 in 2022, making it the largest city in Wayne County. In fact, it accounts for more than half of the entire county population. However, the city’s weak economy has caused an exodus of younger residents seeking better job opportunities elsewhere.

As a result, Richmond is one of the most impoverished cities in Indiana. The median household income in Richmond is $46,356, which is far below the state median of $67,173. Moreover, the poverty rate is dangerously high at 21.5% (compared to 12.6% statewide). This means that more than 1 in every 5 residents of Richmond lives at or below the poverty line. [1]

The COVID-19 pandemic created more instability for the city of Richmond, and the growing economic uncertainty in its wake has only made the substance abuse crisis in the city and the rest of Wayne County even worse. Based on the most recent data, alcohol, marijuana, and meth are among the most commonly abused drugs in Richmond, though prescription opioids, cocaine, and heroin are not far behind.

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

Drug and Alcohol Addiction in Richmond

Wayne County collects, stores, and analyzes substance abuse data on Richmond’s behalf. While this frees up the city’s resources for other endeavors, it also means that Richmond’s substance abuse data is combined with other cities and towns in the county, such as Centerville and Dublin. However, Richmond is the only municipality large enough to be designated as a city in Wayne County and, as a result, contributes more than 75% of the total substance abuse cases to the county figures. This means that evaluating the data available at the county level makes it easy to understand the state of substance abuse and addiction in the city of Richmond, Indiana.

Overdose deaths are one of the most effective statistics analysts use to determine the severity of substance abuse in a given city, county, state, or region. Deaths caused by overdose or involving overdose have generally been in decline in Richmond and Wayne County, though the figures have varied substantially from year to year. [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 quarter of the year.

While the number of annual deaths technically decreased between 2016 and 2023, the data for 2023 has not yet been finalized. Therefore, it is more useful to examine the finalized data from 2022. Between 2016 and 2022, overdose deaths increased by 35.2%. However, there have been very significant variances from one year to the next. For example, 2017 had the most deaths of any year (63), while 2018 had one of the lowest figures on record (42).

These drastic changes make it harder to find a consistent pattern using overdose deaths alone. That said, it does appear that deaths have begun to decline since reaching the second-worst year on record in 2021. But once again, the data for 2023 is provisional, so it’s unclear if this downward trend will continue in the coming years.

Deaths are just one factor to consider when evaluating substance abuse across an entire city or county. In any given year, far more people struggling with addiction experience an overdose and survive. As a result, it’s extremely important to examine the data coming from hospitals and emergency departments related to non-lethal overdoses.

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

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

The two worst years for non-lethal overdoses in Wayne County were 2017 (318) and 2020 (280). Between 2016 and 2022, overdoses increased by 9.6%, which is much lower than the increase in overdose deaths over the same period. This indicates that, while more overdoses are occurring each year, fewer are resulting in deaths. Additionally, the provisional data for 2023 could mean that all overdoses — lethal and non-lethal — are declining in Wayne County.

Types of Substance Abuse in Richmond

Alcohol, meth, marijuana, and opioids are among the most abused substances in Richmond and the rest of Wayne County. While it’s difficult to ascertain exactly how many cases of addiction can be attributed to each type of substance (or more than one substance), arrest records shine a light on the types of addictive substances being bought, sold, transported, and abused. 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 Wayne County:

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

Though the total number of arrests saw a drastic increase in 2018, they have since gone back down to pre-2018 levels. However, the types of substances changed pretty dramatically between 2016 and 2023. Over that period, cocaine and meth abuse increased by the largest margins. Opioid and marijuana abuse may have increased as well, but since the 2023 figures are not final, it is not possible to draw a firm conclusion at this time.