Addiction is a health condition. We have spent fifty years treating it as a crime, and it has not worked. This program argues for treatment.
Find HelpIf someone has a heart attack, nobody argues about whether they have earned an ambulance. If someone has a substance use disorder, we argue about whether they deserve help at all — and frequently answer by arresting them.
Recovery Over Criminalization is where All4Aries helps people dealing with addiction, and argues for treating it as a health condition rather than a crime.
Drug overdose remains one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States, killing tens of thousands of people every year. Encouragingly, CDC provisional data has shown overdose deaths declining from their peak — which matters, because it is evidence that public-health responses like naloxone distribution and expanded treatment access do work. Punishment did not produce that decline. Treatment and harm reduction did.
Meanwhile incarceration remains extraordinarily expensive. Estimates from the Vera Institute of Justice and state corrections departments put the cost of incarcerating one person at well over $30,000 a year, and considerably higher in many states. That is per person, per year, to produce an outcome — a criminal record, lost employment, disrupted housing — that makes recovery measurably harder.
The same money buys treatment. Decades of research, including from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, finds that treatment for substance use disorder reduces drug use and criminal activity and more than pays for itself in avoided costs. We are not asking anyone to be sentimental. We are asking them to look at the arithmetic.
We help people dealing with addiction, and the families around them. We provide resources — plain information about what exists, what it is called, and where to look — so that someone trying to find help is not doing it alone and uninformed.
We also speak publicly for treating addiction as a health condition rather than a crime.
We are the part that helps you find the door and walks you to it.
Our ability to fund treatment costs directly is limited and depends on donations available at the time. What we always do is help you find treatment options, including publicly funded and sliding-scale programs many people do not know exist. Ask us — we will tell you honestly what we can and cannot cover.
No. You do not have to be sober, in treatment, or ready to quit. Meeting people where they are is the entire point.
No. Families carry an enormous amount of this and often have nowhere to put it. If your child, partner, parent, or sibling is struggling, you can contact us for yourself.
No. We are not mandated reporters of drug use and we do not share what you tell us. Our position is that criminalization is the problem, not the tool.
It is community and workplace education aimed at how people talk about and treat those affected by addiction — the assumptions, the language, and the stigma that keeps people from asking for help. If your organization is interested, contact us.
SAMHSA's National Helpline — 1-800-662-4357 — is free, confidential, and available 24/7 in English and Spanish, and will refer you to local treatment and support. Findtreatment.gov lists licensed providers. Then write to us and we will help you work through what you find.
All4Aries is not an emergency service. If you are in danger, call 911. If you are in emotional crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). For sexual assault, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-4673. For substance use, SAMHSA's National Helpline is 1-800-662-4357 — free, confidential, 24/7.
Tell us what you are dealing with — for yourself or for someone you love. We reply personally and confidentially.
For yourself or for someone you love. You do not have to be sober to contact us.
We read every message ourselves and reply directly — usually within one business day. We never sell or share your information. See our privacy policy.
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All4Aries is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, EIN 42-2563413.