Changing Recovery Options: From Malibu Luxury Rehab Centers To Harm Reduction Approaches
Malibu is considered the Riviera Rehab for the abundance of rehabilitation facilities in the area, including Malibu Luxury Rehab Center. Different facilities offer different services and approaches, but an LA rehab center is making a name of its own.
High Sobriety is an LA-based rehabilitation center that has a very different approach. While other facilities like Malibu Luxury Rehab aims to remove drugs and other substances from people’s lives and substituting it with better life skills and coping approaches, High Sobriety believes in a cannabis-inclusive programs. Instead of completely removing drugs, they aim to replace life threatening ones with marijuana instead.
It opened in January last year, and has housed 30 patients on the third quarter of 2017. Located on the Venice Boulevard, it blends in with the neighborhood, looking just like a block of condominiums. One patient staying with them is Sercia, aged 21.
Sercia has a long history with drugs, using black tar heroin to benzodiazepines. High Sobriety is his third facility. He was reluctant to get help after a rough detox program from other facilities. He says that he went in for treatment because of the cannabis. He wouldn’t have gone in for any other reason.
Co-founder Joe Schrank is 21 years sober now, and has successfully quit drinking through Alcoholics Anonymous. Although it worked for him, he says that AA’s emphasis on abstinence, use of faith, and strict parameters wouldn’t work on everyone. He says that one thing that no one wants to admit is that not everyone could stay abstinent and function or be pleasant.
He adds that in following this perspective, High Sobriety aims to replace life-threatening drugs with something that wouldn’t kill people. He has had experience working with other facilities across the state as a clinical social worker. With his experience wit the 12-step system and realizations of its shortcomings, he decided to make his own facility.
He adds that replacing hard drugs with cannabis is a kind of harm reduction. He says that their recovery plan aims to reduce the negative consequences of using drugs, instead of completely abstaining from its use. He says that the facility aims to help those who were not successful with traditional approaches.
