The addiction recovery industry was rocked this week when Google announced that they have begun restricting ads for addiction treatment. “We found a number of misleading experiences among rehabilitation treatment centers that led to our decision,” Google spokeswoman Elisa Greene said in a statement to the New York Times.
While certainly a blow for some in the industry, many of us are thrilled by this shocking decision, and here’s why.
The reality is that addiction in our country is like almost no other disease. When faced with the overwhelming emotional challenge of finding help, families and addicts themselves often see Google as their best shot at getting good, solid, information on what to do.
In recent years, some addiction marketers have been taking advantage of these people at their weakest moment, paying Google millions of dollars so that ads for their treatment center show up at the top of search results — no matter how good their treatment center is.
The results have been absolutely questionable, oftentimes unethical, and even at times despicable.
Up until now, Google has given the best search result placement to whoever is willing to pay the highest, meaning that solid recovery resources with limited ad budgets were missing out on the chance to help people who need it. And according to the New York Times, some of the people giving Google the most money had been linked to accusations of fraud, sexual assault, and worse.
There is nothing more sacred than the sanctity of human life. Addiction destroys an individual’s life piecemeal. It can destroy families piecemeal. It’s disturbing that there are businesses and investors out there who figured out that they could pay to be ranked first on Google pages and jump to the front of the line when it comes to getting business, without any regard for the people at the other end. How could someone who is so desperate for help truly understand that these treatment centers were ranked highly because they paid for that privilege, and not because on any real value?
Unfortunately, what those victims often don’t know is that behind a lot of those ads are purely profit-driven spin dry programs that have been poorly designed and have their bottom line as the primary focus. The healing and recovery of the human being is at best secondary. Oftentimes it gets lost.
Therefore, the ad ban is a phenomenal move by Google. It sends a clear message that business and profit should never supersede the value of human life. God only knows how many thousands of families have been destroyed by the programs that have the resources and the money for the first page placement, but that have little to no true competency or investment in providing the kind of services that people need.
Of course, there are some programs out there that have the resources to buy ads and are actually good programs that provide good services. But it’s way too much of a roll of the dice for desperate people right now, since almost every program touts itself as being evidence-based and trauma-informed and top-of-the-line. They can afford the websites. They can afford the fancy brochures. And then the people show up and they get far from what they’ve been promised.
We’ve still got a long way to go towards reforming the addiction recovery complex in the United States, but this is a great start.
Addiction & Recovery Resources
Reliable resources for learning more about addiction and finding help for yourself, a friend, or a family member.
General Information about Addiction
SAMHSA – Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association
For People with Substance Addictions
For Families and Friends of People with Substance Addictions
SMART Recovery Family and Friends
Partnership for Drug-Free Kids
