ST. PAUL, Minn. - New numbers released last week show the opioid epidemic is affecting a record number of people in the U.S., with 72,000 Americans dying from drug overdoses last year.
Now the largest nonprofit drug treatment center in the country is calling for reforms to the treatment industry, beginning with a lawsuit just filed.
If you need help with drug or alcohol abuse and begin your search for treatment on the web like 65% of people do, you need to be very careful.
That's the message from Mark Mishek, the CEO of the Hazelden Betty Ford, in the midst of the opioid crisis.
"There's definitely people out there that are using the crisis to profit. No question about it," Mishek said.
Hazelden just filed a lawsuit against companies running websites called www.drugrehab.org and drug-rehab-headquarters.com, claiming the sites use Hazelden Betty Ford's name without permission.
Screenshots included in the federal civil complaint show the name next to a phone number that does not belong to Hazelden Betty Ford, which Mark Mishek says has tricked people seeking treatment.
"He called the phone number, went through the admitting process, was told, 'We have a plane ticket for you now to go to Florida.' He said, 'Florida? I thought I was going to Center City, Minnesota.' It turned out he ended up on one of these deceptive websites," Mishek said.
Mishek testified this summer before a Congressional Committee about deceptive marketing practices within the treatment industry.
He hopes the lawsuit can be part of a larger effort to reform the treatment industry.
"What we're trying to do with the lawsuit we filed is to really sound an alarm. And put all these unscrupulous operators on notice that we're coming after them," Mishek said.
He also hopes Congress and state attorneys general will soon clamp down on unethical practices.