Drug & Alcohol Rehab For Sullivan, Indiana

The city of Sullivan sits roughly 12 miles from the Indiana-Illinois state border, surrounded on all sides by dense forests and farmland. Though it is home to just 4,223 full-time residents, Sullivan serves as the seat of Sullivan County. In addition to a powerful tornado that damaged parts of the downtown area in 2023, Sullivan has been hit by difficult economic times since the COVID-19 pandemic. The median household income is just $54,985, which falls well below the state median of $70,051. To make matters worse, the city and county have a high poverty rate of 15.6%, compared to the statewide poverty rate of 12.3%. [1]

The difficult economic times have only worsened the ongoing substance abuse crisis in Sullivan and the surrounding area. Based on the most recent data, meth and marijuana are the most commonly abused substances in Sullivan, 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 Sullivan, Indiana. And remember, if you or a loved one are fighting addiction in Sullivan or the surrounding area, you can always reach out to Addiction Rehab Centers for help.

Drug and Alcohol Addiction in Sullivan

Sullivan is a small city in a sparsely populated part of Indiana. Much of Sullivan County is taken up by uninhabited forests, large patches of farmland, and several lakes and waterways, including Lake Sullivan. According to the latest census, the population of Sullivan County is 20,768, which means that the city of Sullivan accounts for 20.3% of the county population.

This matters because most cities in Indiana do not collect their own substance abuse data — their parent county does. Since counties need to relay this data to the state for evaluation, most counties do not separate substance abuse cases (including arrests, overdoses, and fatalities) originating in different towns, cities, or municipalities. In other words, substance abuse cases originating in Sullivan are combined with those originating in other nearby towns, like Dugger and Farmersburg.

However, Sullivan is the only city in the county and has the largest population of any municipality in Sullivan County by far. While roughly 1 in 5 Sullivan County residents live in the city of Sullivan, it’s estimated that more than 1 in 4 substance abuse cases recorded at the county level originate in the city of Sullivan. Consequently, evaluating the county data provides a foundation for evaluating the state of substance abuse at the city level.

To begin an analysis of substance abuse in a given area, the number of fatal overdoses must be accounted for. While these figures tend to be relatively low in sparsely populated counties like Sullivan County, they are still vitally important and the best starting point from which we can expand our research. In Sullivan County, deaths have been low for most years over the last decade, with very little change from one year to the next. The table below shows how deaths involving all drugs (including alcohol) have changed in the county over the past few years. [2]

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

Even for a county of Sullivan’s size, the number of fatal overdoses since 2016 is surprisingly low. Most other counties with similarly-sized populations record 2 to 3 times as many fatal overdoses, on average. It’s also important to note that annual deaths remained at 3 per year from 2019 to 2022. The data for 2023 is still provisional, and no deaths have been officially recorded in 2024. However, the data for these two years could be updated in the near future.

Given the low number of deaths in Sullivan County, it’s more helpful to look at non-fatal overdoses. Non-fatal overdoses are more common in general, and this has proven true in the city of Sullivan and the rest of Sullivan County. Plus, non-fatal overdoses are frequently easier to account for, since they are typically recorded and collected via hospital discharges and emergency department visits involving addictive substances. The table below shows the relevant overdose data in Sullivan 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.

As you can see from the table above, Sullivan County records much higher figures for non-fatal overdoses as opposed to fatal overdoses. Additionally, there’s greater change each year. Just taking into account the years with finalized data, Sullivan County saw a decline in non-fatal overdoses of approximately 23% between 2016 and 2022. Based on the data that’s currently available, non-fatal overdoses appear to have declined further in 2023 and 2024, but since the data is still provisional, it’s too early to know for sure.

It’s always important to look at the relationship between total overdoses, fatal overdoses, and non-fatal overdoses. However, due to the small sample size of fatal overdoses, there’s little change to evaluate. There were 56 total overdoses (fatal plus non-fatal) in Sullivan County in 2016. Of those overdoses, 4 were fatal — accounting for 7.1%. By 2022, there were 43 total overdoses in Sullivan County. Of those overdoses, 3 were fatal — accounting for 7.5%. While this does indicate that the fatality rate has risen, the change is very small and does not lead us to believe that a major shift is changing in fatalities.

Types of Substance Abuse in Sullivan

In 2023 and 2024, meth and marijuana were the most abused substances in Sullivan County. Alcohol was the third most abused substance, which is relatively unsurprising considering that alcohol is the most abused substance across all of Indiana. In more recent years, street drugs have flooded into more rural areas, like Sullivan County, making drugs like marijuana, as well as harder drugs like meth and heroin, more accessible. This led to increased rates of abuse involving addictive substances other than alcohol. 

We find these trends by evaluating arrests and re-arrests involving addictive substances. This method is not perfect, as it does not account for cases of abuse that fly under the radar of law enforcement. It also doesn’t account for substance abuse cases in which no laws are broken. Nonetheless, it provides an overview of how the prevalence of different drugs and substances has changed in recent years.

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 Sullivan County:

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

Total arrests have generally declined in Sullivan County after peaking at 206 in 2018. More importantly, arrests involving alcohol declined substantially between 2016 and 2022. Over the same period, cocaine and opioid arrests remained low, with some years recording zero arrests involving these substances. However, marijuana and meth arrests have generally increased in 2016. In fact, arrests involving meth more than doubled by 2022. Drug paraphernalia arrests have remained consistently high over the entire period, and these arrests are most often linked to meth or heroin abuse. It’s important to note that the data for 2023 and 2024 is still provisional, though 2023 saw the fewest arrests of any year in the data set. However, total arrests jumped up above 100 for 2024 once again, indicating that 2023’s data was more of an anomaly.