In November of last year, historian William White addressed the Executive Directors Leadership Academy at the Association of Recovery Community Organizations meeting.
“It is always good to be with old friends, friends in recovery and friends of recovery. It is a special pleasure to finally meet some of you face-to-face who I have corresponded with for so many years. As I entered the worlds of addiction treatment and recovery in the late 1960s, I witnessed the end of a very dark era in our country—an era in which those with alcohol and other drug problems festered in the “drunk tanks” of local jails and the “back wards” of aging state psychiatric hospitals or died alone bereft of hope. Few resources existed in most communities outside the rooms of mutual aid fellowships.”