For the first time ever this September, Washington, DC, will commemorate national Recovery Month, bringing together people in recovery, service providers, and policy advocates to show that treatment works and recovery can happen if the city invests in it.

Recovery Month, whose theme this year is "Join the Voices for Recovery: Saving Lives, Saving Dollars,” will feature 300 events around the country to highlight the financial and human costs of substance use disorders.  An initiative of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Recovery Month is designed to raise awareness of the benefits of drug treatment, acknowledge the contributions of treatment providers, and celebrate people in recovery and their families.

In the District, community partners from all over the city will host the first annual Recovery Weekend, entitled "Recovery: Help, Hope and Healing," September 12-16. Events will range from a city-wide rally to an intensive one-day policy conference. Sponsoring organizations include drug treatment centers, homeless shelters, re-entry programs, harm reduction organizations, and law enforcement agencies.

The weekend is co-sponsored by the DC Recovery Community Alliance, a coalition of which DPA is a founding member. Naomi Long, director of DPA's DC Metro Area office, is a member of the planning committee and will moderate a debate on treatment-instead-of-incarceration at the one-day conference.

DC has a particularly acute need for advocacy around treatment issues. 60,000 people in the city need drug treatment, but only 14% have treatment access. Funding for the city's Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration has remained flat since the 1980s. Currently the District spends 1.2 billion dollars on lost productivity and social service costs related to substance use. The DC jail and re-entry services continue to be log-jammed with low-level, nonviolent drug offenders and addicts.

For Long, having members of the recovery community at the forefront of drug policy advocacy is crucial. "The District has a huge network of people in recovery who are intimately aware of the shortcomings in DC's current approach to drug addiction. The Recovery Weekend is one step in the process of them organizing for a real public health approach to drug use that includes adequate treatment funding, more treatment options, and comprehensive services."

For more information or to register for the conference visit www.grm.org.