Recovery Assets

Over the past several years, much of the public conversation about illicit drug use has focused on fentanyl. And rightly so. So many have lossed people we love to the fentanyl crisis.

For most of modern history, psychoactive drugs came off the farm. Alcohol, heroin, cannabis, and cocaine all depended on substances that had to be grown, harvested, processed, packaged, and shipped to market. That did not make them safe. But it did put real  constraints on the drug supply.

In October 2025, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reported that it had identified 1,396 unique new psychoactive substances through its Early Warning Advisory system. One class of these substances, nitazenes, has sometimes been found to be 2,000 times more potent than heroin.  For perspective, fentanyl is commonly described as about 50 times more potent than heroin. 

Welcome to the new world of addiction where supply is easy and risk has skyrocketed.

Synthetic drugs can be manufactured in small spaces and moved in small quantities. Once law enforcement begins to catch up, a new, more potent formulation has already hit the streets. The DEA must play an unending game of catch me if you can.

The current federal drug-control budget comes in at $44 billion a year. Broader estimates that include state and local enforcement commonly place the annual cost of above $50 billion per year.

Synthetic drugs can be manufactured, modified, and replaced faster than our systems can detect them. Try as we might, we need to acknowledge that we can't fix this with a supply-side strategy alone. We keep losing the “War on Drugs”.

The illicit drug supply is becoming more adaptive. We must become more adaptive too. We will never stop the drug supply. But we can change one person’s demand for drugs. 

People don’t use because they lack information. Most know the risks. Most know the devastating consequences of substance use. Many know others who have died in their substance use.

The problem is that in moments of stress, pain, loneliness, or shame, substance use feels like a solution.  And until a person develops an alternative, substance use is the only solution they have. 

At ARS we focus on developing recovery assets that support long-term recovery: honesty and transparency, emotional regulation, healthy boundaries, stress management, intrinsic motivation, situational awareness for relapse prevention, and connection to a recovery-supportive community. These behaviors — when they become internalized — are the only things that keep a person safe no matter how abundant the supply of substances may be; no matter how potent; no matter how available.  

A person who can name what they are feeling before they act has options. A person who can ask for help when stressed, has protection. A person who can set a boundary, repair a relationship, tolerate distress, and stay connected to supportive people grows strong. 

In the age of cheap, available, and ever-changing synthetic drugs, this is the work we do. We help people build recovery assets in their lives so they can have confidence to build an ever more hopeful future shared in joyful relationship with others.