My goal has long been to end addiction as a problem in American life. It is clear that one necessary condition of reaching this goal is to create a treatment system so fast, so effective, and so inexpensive that it makes all other systems irrelevant. Imagine a process that took outpatients from active addiction to full voluntary recovery in as little as 2 weeks. Imagine it had built into it, a process improvement system so that it got better and better all the time. Imagine a system that didn't argue about the "best" way to treat addiction but was able to tailor the treatment to what each patient needed when they needed it. Now imagine the effect on the addiction treatment industry. And make no mistake; it's an industry.
What I hope to do, along with partners who want to help, is to build a company that patients will gravitate to because we offer a better product, a company that insurance companies will trust because it will be able to share the risk with them, a company that employees will stay with because they feel fulfilled in their work.
There are anywhere from 30 to 60 million people in America with the disease of addiction. Most don't ever get treatment. A big reason for that is that the current treatment isn't anything that most want. If we're going to end addiction as a problem in American life, and I mean all addiction, then we're going to have to have a treatment system that people want to go to. After all, a good idea doesn't require force.
