Drug Addiction in New Mexico

Addiction Treatment Needed in The Southwest

Drug Rehab in New Mexico New Mexico's desert landscape is almost entirely owned by the federal government in the form of national parks, military bases and testing sites. Most of the population lives in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe metropolitan areas, all of which tend to have high poverty and a low median income. New Mexico's border, particularly with Ciudad Juarez, means that its countryside constantly has drug traffickers moving through it, delivering billions of dollars of narcotics through the US and Canada every year.

Despite its small and relatively non-urban population, New Mexico is rife with drug problems. In 2008 the state had the highest per-capita rate of overdose deaths from opioid painkillers, the majority of which were from oxycodone and hydrocodone pills. These drugs are cheaply obtained and have affected teenagers and young adults in the millions, and recent changes to pill formulas to make them harder to abuse has merely shifted opiate addicts from pills to buying street heroin.

New Mexico also has the largest population of Native Americans in the contiguous US, accounting for over 9% of the population. Natio-wide Native Americans experience drug abuse at far higher rates than other parts of the populace due the extreme generational poverty found in most reservations. However, New Mexican Native Americans tend to have greater economic opportunities and over-all mental health, which is in part attributed to the fact that quite a few of the Pueblo, Hopi, and Navajo people still occupy their ancestral lands and do not have as an abusive of an relationship with their local government. In general, New Mexico is one of the most mixed-race and minority-majority populations in the country including Native American, Spanish, and Latin American peoples. Alcoholism is still a serious problem in many Native American communities.

New Mexico's population centers often show disproportionate problems with drug abuse, especially amongst its youth. Alcohol abuse overall is much higher than the national average statewide and heroin is unusually problematic in Albuquerque, especially amongst the hispanic community.

Above all, there are two glaring statistics that indicate why drug problems continue to fester in New Mexico: the state chronically has unmet need for addiction treatment, and the vast majority of those in drug rehabs in its urban centers admit themselves to treatment. In many states, community organizations and law enforcement take up a large amount of addiction treatment referrals, but that is not the case in New Mexico. Leaving addiction treatment up to everyone is often a difficult proposition when society is flooded with advertisements for alcohol, prescription drugs, and in New Mexico's case, medical marijuana. Therefore it is very difficult for many people to understand that even seemingly harmless drug habits involving alcohol, prescription pills, or methamphetamine are going to need professional rehabilitation in order to quit. In order for an addict to have a good chance to fully recovery and resist temptations to relapse, rehab centers offer extensive psychological and spiritual techniques to re-build mental coherency, confidence, and self-worth. Mental health issues will also have to be treated in order to for a patient to be able to avoid future "triggers" that could make them lose control of their lives again.

New Mexico cities with drug problems: Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Rio Rancho, Roswell, Farmington, Clovis, Hobbs, and Las Lunas

New Mexico counties suffering from substance abuse: Bernalillo, Dona Ana, Santa Fe, Sandoval, San Juan, Valencia, Chaves, Lea, Currey, Otero, and Eddy

A Center for Addiction Recovery treats the following addiction problems:

A Center for Addiction Recovery offers the following addiction treatment programs:

For more information about drug and alcohol rehab, chat online now or call New Mexico addiction treatment helpline at: .
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