Opioid Settlement Money Pays for Services To Battle Addiction in Rural Kentucky

WHITESBURG, Ky. — Drugs and the consequences of addiction are woven into the fabric of Jamie Madden’s life.

Her earliest memory is of standing on the passenger seat of her dad’s car as a toddler, wearing a peach-colored blouse, while he drove from their Kentucky home to Florida to pick up drugs. On a stop for a burger, she met Ronald McDonald.

“I grew up with the impression that that’s how you paid your bills,” Madden said. “That’s how your kids got things.” By 16, she was addicted to pain pills.

By 30, methamphetamine. She lost custody of two children and gave up two more for adoption at birth.

She served time in the county jail and state prison. Pregnant again at 40, Madden resolved to stop using.

It was then that she learned of The Hub in Whitesburg, a town of 1,575 residents, her hometown. Over the past two years, the state of Kentucky has sent hundreds of thousands of opioid settlement dollars to the rural eastern region of the state to help minimize the ramifications of drug misuse.