how did you know that rehab was right
for you because I was strung out on
heroin I think that rehab has become
accepted as the best and the most
wonderful thing you can do for somebody
go to rehab especially expensive rehabs
because that should be the best because
it's so expensive
and of course it isn't it isn't so our
poor people just straight-up know
what you might be better off I think
rich people are straight-up are
you gonna do this mentally when you're
out in the real world you know how hard
it is to find a psychiatrist that's just
not gonna pass out psych meds like their
Pez candy it's all it's it's almost next
to impossible to find that it's like
going to a barber shop and saying you
know I want to find a guy who had a
barber shop who doesn't cut hair we are
falling behind if you look at any other
field of medicine they're far advanced
then addiction rates
she said me the brain was not and day
any danger he was safe you know that the
nurse is monitoring the levels and she
dies the next day
in the beginning there was alcohol and
then there were alcoholics from then on
we've been trying to cure addiction with
all kinds of crazy methods from solitary
confinement and electroshock therapy to
sterilization and lobotomy it wasn't
until the 30s that we found something
that's sort of kind of worked and that
was Alcoholics Anonymous created by a
former atheist and drunk named Bill W in
the 50s a couple of doctors adopted AA's
religious inspired twelve steps and
mixed it with inpatient therapy and the
first modern-day rehab program was born
since then inpatient treatment has
turned into a thirty-five billion dollar
industry charging tens of thousands of
dollars per person this treatment model
has become seen as the gold standard
thanks to its glamorization and popular
culture by shows like intervention and
Celebrity Rehab but is it really worth
the money drug abuse is on the rise in
the u.s. creating a dire need for
effective treatment we took a trip to
what is known as rehab riviera in malibu
california the hotbed of the country's
most elite non-hospital rehab centers to
find out what these places have to offer
in order to justify the huge charges
from now from thirty thousand to ninety
thousand dollars a month for rehab they
couldn't very well just say we're going
to give you the same thing you can get
for free in a church basement and they
were in competition with each other so
they became like spas as they are today
they just added things that they could
say was part of their program without
any evidence whatsoever than any of
these things did anything
this is dr. Lance M DotA's he's an
expert and critic of the rehab industry
who worked for years as the director of
substance abuse treatment at Harvard
University's McLean hospital
drop drop drop remember the Muppets used
to do that the famous cases we hear
about the celebrities who go in and out
of these expensive Malibu places they go
in eight nine times and we all blame
them we say what's the matter with these
people they can't stay with the program
no one says maybe the treatment is lousy
which it is of course it's just won't
work with them
we're here at cliffside Malibu one of
the nation's top rehab centers
apparently Lindsay Lohan went here we're
gonna talk to the founder Richard Tate
about how the rich recover from their
addictions
so this is our fruit orchard really 70
trees all organic this is where we do a
lot of our intimate groups right so it's
sweet right it's adorable
this was actually my room when I lived
here
hence the raffia walls I think wasn't
just bitchin right I think it's just
cool very nice guys very nice thank you
this is a single single room okay
the cost is 73 thousand dollars a month
and this is what it is when you got over
your addiction and went to recovery were
you in a facility similar to this no no
I wasn't but but understand that that's
why it took me three years to get sober
okay right what we're doing here is
we're trying to save somebody three
years so if someone someone comes to
cliffside you can say you're gonna get
help recover faster is that something
you guys can guarantee your way faster
that we do have a guarantee what's
that's great
yeah I get a lot of flack for it too
because people go you can't guarantee
sobriety the right I can't a cliffside
Malibu our treatment program is so
successful we guarantee it how does it
how does it differ from the 12-step
12-step isn't treatment okay
12-step is a support group 12-step
basically asks what was my part in this
right and therapy is uncovering what the
guys okay so would you say that what a
lot of people are paying for when they
put their money down to stay at this
place is the holistic aspect it's it's
not necessarily the medical aspect but
more of like the pools and the you know
the bocce ball and now know it's
everything okay it's what you get what
you get but listen seventy-three
thousand dollars sounds like a lot of
money but if you go to the Four Seasons
for 30 days okay that's gonna be 40
grand right okay what did you get
was there any life-changing thing going
on there everything that we've done here
is mine
it only seems like horse to people
that don't know better but you don't
have to know better bro because your
life didn't depend on it you didn't go
through it but if your life did goat but
if your life did depend on it you'd say
to yourself ok this is the only place I
would go because this guy actually gives
a where your where your patients at
today I don't know where are they
where'd they go no you're not Rob's not
here I have no idea I have no idea ok
very no idea do they they probably went
to whatever they did there's a
therapeutic meaning behind it
so you guys have comfort you know going
for you I'm connection we wanted to see
one of these therapeutic sessions in
action so we visited stand in balance
they treat individuals from inpatient
centers like cliffside Malibu with what
is known as equine therapy which one
private hour-long session cost two
hundred and sixty-five dollars trying to
get your hat off this is Megan she's a
recovering addict who's fighting hard to
stay sober Oh kind of reminds me of my
mom a lot also I feel that my mom is one
of a kind okay it's alright if we call
that mom okay she's only 23 years old
and this is her third time in a rehab
program why do you think the treatment
that you're getting is going to be the
key to your recovery like what about it
gives you the hope that you can break
your addiction well because this place
is not you know 12-step based and I feel
that I can find the power within myself
and I know it is my third time and
people might think well the pictures
third time there then why are you clean
oh you feel the difference yeah
but the way you look at it is it's my
third time because of choices that I've
made and that was my mistake and so I
think by staying out here you know and
having the support is what I need to do
I'm just gonna stick with it this time
and not go running back home I'm just a
little bit upset for all the people out
there that might have problems with a
set for the upper-middle class and
middle-class people who may be bankrupt
themselves trying to save a loved one
and spend a ton of money on these fancy
places out here only to have them
relapse again because there are no other
options I'm sad for the poor
people who can't get access to this and
have to just do 12-step or die
I appreciate what these people are doing
because they're trying to help but it
seems like if you acquire an addiction
in America today most likely you are
because if you are addicted
something like meth your likelihood of
surviving playing with horses
and bocce ball and shit's crazy we're
about to keep keep looking into this but
I I don't know I don't know what to
think
I'm upset
you