British Columbia's lowest monthly toll in six years, and reported recovery news from three countries.
British Columbia counted 109 deaths from toxic drugs in May: its lowest monthly total in more than six years, and the province is on pace for its lowest yearly total since 2019.
That's from the BC Coroners Service, which is careful to call the count preliminary; it will shift as toxicology comes back. Still: fewer families got the worst phone call in May than in any month since early 2020. That's 109 too many, and also the best news that number has carried in six years.
This is the first issue written start to finish as THE RECOVERY CODE. The idea behind the name hasn't changed: addiction wrote a story into you. Recovery is learning the code (how this actually works) and rewriting the story, line by line. Nobody can run the rewrite for you. It's an inside job. In this build: reported news stories from three countries, a Medicaid fight that just landed in federal court, two men who got out and now hold the door open, and a big new Colorado treatment list in the Toolkit, sent in by a member of our community.
On July 13 the UK government and the European Union Drugs Agency signed a working arrangement restoring the two-way exchange of information, expertise, and alerts on emerging drug threats, with potent synthetic opioids and new psychoactive substances at the top of the watch list. "This Working Arrangement marks an important new chapter in the relationship between the European Union Drugs Agency and the United Kingdom," said EUDA executive director Dr. Lorraine Nolan. Faster alerts across borders mean a contaminated supply gets flagged sooner, on both sides of the Channel. EUDA
Howard County, Maryland put overdose reversal in vending machines. Two of them, free and anonymous, open around the clock, stocked with two-dose naloxone kits and test strips for fentanyl, xylazine, and medetomidine, paid for with opioid settlement dollars. County fire crews administered naloxone to 163 people in the year through May, and the county recorded 13 opioid-related deaths in that same stretch. "Access to naloxone leads to measurable drops in opioid overdose deaths," said county health officer Dr. Maura Rossman. Howard County · CBS Baltimore
Pirate Springs opened the Rustic Refuge Recovery Community Center on July 2: peer support meetings, life-skills workshops, employment guidance, and resources for families, built on more than a decade of running recovery housing and a transitional work program. Co-owner Paul Hook says it's "one of only three dedicated Recovery Community Centers in the entire state of Tennessee." Small city, real infrastructure. Cleveland Daily Banner
In the state's fourth round of opioid settlement infrastructure grants, 54 applicants asked for $39.9 million; $11 million went out to 24 organizations and local governments, with projects reaching 44 counties: recovery housing in the southwest, a medication treatment unit in La Junta, youth recovery work in Rifle, expanded pediatric addiction care at CU. "This round made clear just how urgent the need remains," said Attorney General Phil Weiser. Colorado has now secured more than $912 million in settlement funds and distributed more than $130 million, and in 2025 spending, recovery was the largest category at nearly 40%. Colorado AG · Weiser address
The honest caveat: CDC provisional data show Colorado was one of only seven states where overdose deaths still rose in the 12 months ending December 2025, up more than 10% while the nation fell almost 14% (Becker's · AJMC). The money is moving because the need is real.
This story moved fast since last issue. On June 3, CMS published the rule that puts the new Medicaid work requirement into effect: starting January 1, 2027, most adults 19 to 64 covered through Medicaid expansion must show 80 hours a month of work, community service, or school, or income of at least $580 a month, checked at application and at renewal (CMS). Good news first: people in a drug or alcohol treatment program are an exempt category in the rule's own text.
Now the fight. The rule added a test that isn't in the law: to count as "medically frail," a condition must now "significantly impair" your ability to comply, wording that could squeeze people with substance use disorders out of the exemption (Georgetown CCF). On June 29, 25 states plus D.C., Colorado among them, sued in federal court to strike that provision; a motion to block it is pending (Healthcare Dive). In Colorado, roughly 375,000 Health First Colorado members are in the affected group, and six-month eligibility checks start December 31, 2026 (HCPF).
The rule is open for public comment through July 31, 2026: search CMS-2454-IFC at regulations.gov and say what coverage means to you. If you're on Medicaid: keep your address current with your state office, keep proof of any treatment enrollment, and open every piece of renewal mail. Exemption paperwork details are still developing; we'll track this every issue through 2027.
Luis started using as a kid, looking for somewhere to belong. In 1995 he lost his infant son, and the years after ran through street life, jail, treatment, and homelessness. The rewrite started when a recovery-house coordinator saw something in him and pushed him toward peer work. Sober since January 1, 2011, Luis, 54, is now a certified peer specialist with an associate degree in human services. He helps run Philadelphia's Police-Assisted Diversion program, steering people toward services instead of cells, and founded the nonprofit Inspirando Latinos.
"Sometimes it's easy to see someone on the street and point a finger at them, but we're all human."
When Chris entered recovery in 2007, he says, you had to keep quiet about it. He went the other way. In 2016 he founded Blueprints for Addiction Recovery, and he now travels Pennsylvania telling his story out loud. In late June he co-hosted Night of Recovery in Scranton, a free community event that drew more than 100 people to hear him, WWE alum Jesus Rodriguez, and former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf talk about what's on the other side.
"The biggest stigma exists in our own minds, and it stops so many people... There is a whole community of people right behind me that will love you until you can love yourself."
🏆 RECOVERY HERO OF THE MONTH
This spot is reserved for a reader-nominated hero: someone in recovery quietly showing up for their community. A mentor, a ride-giver, a 2 a.m. phone-answerer. The first nomination gets the first feature. Know somebody? Tell us: recoveryhero@therecoverycode.org
They call addiction a disease. Look closer at the word: dis-ease. A lack of ease. That crawling-out-of-your-skin feeling on a quiet Tuesday when nothing is wrong and nothing is right either. Most of us didn't use because the party was that good. We used because we couldn't sit in our own skin, and a substance rented us some ease by the hour.
So when recovery feels flat or itchy, that's not proof it isn't working. That's the dis-ease out in the open with nothing covering it. What works on it is unglamorous. Name it out loud: "this is restlessness, not an emergency." Give it ten minutes; urges crest and fall. Move your body; a walk counts. And tell one person, because restlessness kept secret starts sounding like a plan. Ease you build yourself comes slower than ease you rent. It's also yours, and nobody can repossess it.
Corrupted line: "Don't reach out. You'd only be a burden."
Bobo runs two favorite exploits: complacency and isolation. Last issue we patched the first. This is the second, the sneakier one, because it disguises itself as politeness. He can't crash a connected system, so he cuts the network cable first: your problems are too heavy, your people are too busy, it's too soon since the last slip. Every unsent text is a port he leaves open.
The patch: send it anyway. "Rough day. You around?" is enough. You are not a burden; you're the reason somebody else's recovery works, the same way they're the reason yours does. Bobo can't execute in a room with other people in it.
Week 1: Next time restlessness hits, set a ten-minute timer before you act on anything. Watch what it does when you don't feed it.
Week 2: Try one meeting format you've never tried. The Road Trip card below counts.
Work trip, family visit, rural road, 2 a.m. None of it has to stand between you and a meeting; virtual rooms run around the clock, worldwide. This issue's featured stop pairs with The Source Code above.
When: Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays · 6:00 AM Pacific / 7:00 AM Mountain / 9:00 AM Eastern
Where: Zoom · join link, meeting ID, and password are posted on the official page: recoverydharma.online/sitting-groups
Format: short readings on Recovery Dharma's practices, a 20-minute guided meditation, open sharing, and an optional "virtual parking lot" afterward if you want to hang around.
Newcomers welcome. Camera optional. What's shared in the room stays in the room.
Online Intergroup of AA · directory of online AA meetings running 24/7, worldwide
NA Virtual · NA's hub for virtual meetings, any time zone
In The Rooms · free live online meetings across many recovery paths, all week long
SMART Recovery Online · filter the meeting finder to online sessions
Recovery Dharma Online · meditation-based recovery meetings, daily, from anywhere
Same rule as always: these are doors, not "the" way. Wherever you are tonight, one of them is open.
Gray, a London magazine editor, hit bottom with alcohol at 33 and then did something rare in recovery writing: she counted what she got back. Sleep, money, mornings, friendships, all of it, with interviews with neuroscientists and psychologists tucked between the confessions. Funny, honest, zero preachiness, and she never claims her way is the only way. For anybody who suspects sober life might be a downgrade: it isn't, and this book is the receipts.
Sometimes a meeting isn't enough and you need detox or residential treatment. Our full, community-submitted Colorado detox and inpatient directory, plus hotlines, treatment finders, and virtual meetings for anywhere, lives on the Get Help page: therecoverycode.org/get-help. In crisis, call or text 988.
There are many paths to recovery, and none of these is "the" way; they're doors. Find your path, any path, just find one.
Hotlines: SAMHSA National Helpline 1-800-662-HELP (4357) (free, confidential, 24/7) · 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call/text 988 · Cocaine Anonymous 310-559-5833
Find treatment: findtreatment.gov · confidential, free, official locator
Find a meeting (every path counts): AA · NA · CA · CoDA · SMART Recovery · Recovery Dharma
Get connected, get moving: Young People in Recovery · peer support, life skills, local chapters · The Phoenix · free sober active community
Colorado readers: 5280 High School (Denver recovery high school, tuition-free)
Nominate a Recovery Hero: recoveryhero@therecoverycode.org
Contact us: support@therecoverycode.org
"Please help" might be the two most valuable words a person struggling with addiction can learn. So we'll go first:
Too many people are still stranded: cold, isolated, and convinced nobody is coming for them. We are coming.
Help us build a bridge from the icy island of addiction to a life filled with hope, freedom, and purpose. Help us cast a dragnet of hope wide enough to reach every person who is still struggling. A like may seem small. A follow takes only a second. But one share could reach someone on the night they are ready to give up.
Please:
• Like and follow The Recovery Code on Facebook.
• Share our messages with someone who may need them.
• Invite others to help us reach the people still struggling.
You may never know which share becomes someone's first step toward recovery. Together, we can reach more people. Together, we can save lives. We leave no one behind.
The Recovery Code · IT'S AN INSIDE JOB.
TheRecoveryCode.org
#TheRecoveryCode #RecoveryIsPossible #ItsAnInsideJob
A province at the center of the overdose crisis just counted its fewest losses in six years. In Philadelphia, a man who buried his son now spends his days walking strangers back from the same edge. In Tennessee, they opened another front door. The numbers move because people move them, one patched day at a time.
Your story is not over. You're mid-rewrite, and the next line is yours to write. See you in two weeks. Keep debugging, and keep Bobo out of the build.