Rehab Riviera: An investigation into how and why California has become a hub for rehabs, drug treatment centers and sober-living homes.

Journalists from the Southern California News Group have spent months investigating and reporting on the local drug treatment industry. They have interviewed dozens of sources and sifted through thousands of pages of reports and court documents.

The resulting stories show how and why Southern California has become a hub for drug treatment centers, with more than a thousand of them in the greater Los Angeles area.

Some of those centers have admirable intentions and strong records of helping addicts. Others, however, exploit California-specific regulations and sometimes-lax oversight in an attempt to cash in on the lucrative industry, despite the potential danger for those the industry is supposed to help.

Here are the main parts of the investigation and other in-depth coverage of the rehab industry from 2017.

Timmy Solomon’s mood swings between euphoria and sadness after shooting heroin and crystal meth, a concoction aptly named “goofball.” One minute he’s dancing: “I’m the luckiest person in the world!” The next minute he’s crying because his ex-wife won’t allow him to see his 1 1/2-year-old daughter when he’s using. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Part One: How some Southern California drug rehab centers exploit addiction

A darker version of the rehab industry is emerging post-Obamacare, built around an illicit world of patient recruiters, fraud-driven clinics and drug-testing mills. Lax regulation and systemic loopholes have allowed unscrupulous operators to create a Wild, Wild West in California. Read the story.

Tammy Smick of Downey, sits in the bedroom of her son, Alex, who died in 2012 from a lethal combination of prescription medications while being treated at an Orange County drug treatment center. (Photo by Nick Agro, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Part Two: The consequences of California’s rehab industry

Detox can end in death at some ‘non-medical’ Southern California rehabs
Hundreds of rehab centers in California offer “non-medical detox,” meaning people can try to break their drug addiction without medical care. It’s a loophole so risky that many other states won’t allow it. Read the story.

How a multimillion-dollar empire built around urine drug tests exposes flaws in California’s rehab laws
In California, even someone convicted of fraud or drug dealing or medical malpractice can make money in rehab, often through the vertical integration of insurance payments for urine testing. Our rules are lax, but prosecutors are watching. Read the story.

Are drug rehab centers fueling homelessness in Southern California?
At least part of Southern California’s homeless boom seems to be fueled by the region’s 1,100 rehab centers. Some woo out-of-state addicts with free, one-way trips, only to kick them to the streets after their insurance runs out, penniless and still addicted. Read the story.

Michael Moreno thanks Dr. Faried Banimahd after receiving his Naltrexone pellet implant during an outpatient procedure in Laguna Hills on Saturday, October 28, 2017. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Part Three: The search for solutions

Are drugs for drug addicts a solution or a crutch?
Despite widely accepted scientific evidence that medication-assisted treatment excels at keeping addicts alive, abstinence-only remains a bedrock of America’s addiction treatment industry. Read the story.

California testing Vermont’s model to fight addiction
The state is spending $90 million to adapt Vermont’s hub-and-spoke system. Read the story.

An industry struggling to get clean
“Instead of a recovery model, we have a relapse model.” Read the story.

Additional featured coverage

Are implants for opioid addicts a new hope or a new scam?
As the addiction crisis grows, implants that deliver buprenorphine, naltrexone and opioid-blocking drugs like them might offer light in an otherwise oppressive darkness. Read the story.

Photos

Timmy Solomon lights a glass pipe of crystal meth in the bathroom of his sober living home in San Clemente. He closes the window and turns the shower to steaming hot to disguise the smell. He said he got the meth a few days earlier from another addict at their outpatient treatment center in San Juan Capistrano. Less than an hour later his housemates call the house manager to report him being high. A few hours later he's kicked out and sent to Mission Hospital Laguna Beach where he spends the night.(Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG) — Timmy Solomon lights a glass pipe of crystal meth in the bathroom of his sober living home in San Clemente. He closes the window and turns the shower to steaming hot to disguise the smell. He said he got the meth a few days earlier from another addict at their outpatient treatment center in San Juan Capistrano. Less than an hour later his housemates call the house manager to report him being high. A few hours later he’s kicked out and sent to Mission Hospital Laguna Beach where he spends the night.(Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

One man’s journey through the Southern California rehab industry
Orange County Register photographer Mindy Schauer followed Solomon on his back-and-forth journey between the streets and rehabs, and eventually, to recovery. See the photos.

Mapping Southern California’s Rehab Facilities

Points show the primary addresses of all non-medical alcoholism and drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities licensed and/or certified by the California Department of Health Care Services as of May 4, 2017. (Map by Ian Wheeler, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Impact

Members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce write to then-Health and Human
Services Secretary Tom Price about rehab-related issues and both quote from and cite the Rehab
Riviera series. Read the letter (PDF).

Rep. Mimi Walters (R-Irvine) enters the Rehab Riviera series into the Congressional Record as a
supporting document in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing entitled “Examining
Concerns of Patient Brokering and Addiction Treatment Fraud.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) urges HUD Secretary Ben Carson to take action on sober living homes. Read the letter (PDF).

Bill aims to plug holes in addiction treatment industry
Sen. Pat Bates introduces legislation Wednesday, Jan. 17 to start addressing dangerous and deadly practices in California’s poorly-regulated addiction treatment industry. Read the story.

Read Sen. Bates’ press release: Senate Republican Leader Patricia Bates to Pursue State Action on “Rehab Riviera” Concerns
Read the bill: SB-902 Alcoholism or drug abuse recovery or treatment facilities

Senate calls hearing on addiction treatment after reports of abuse within Southern California’s rehab industry
Legislators have called a hearing before the Senate Health Committee on Wednesday, Jan. 31, to explore the Golden State’s approach to the industry.

Lawmakers resolve to control rogue rehabs this year
Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, read from the dais a printout of the Southern California News Group’s reports detailing the death of 21-year-old Dillon DeRita. DeRita suffered a fatal heart attack on the patio of Costa Mesa’s Pacific Coast Detox. “That’s outrageous,” Roth said. “That cannot be allowed to continue.” Read the story.