Robert McPherson

Story about substance abuse treatment. New attempt. What happens when you send a gang of addicts out in the wilderness? As part of the treatment, they were sent out in the wilderness in Norway for over 3 months. The participants had no access to mobile phones, public transportation to nearby cities and medications. They had all used drugs from early youth. Among the addicts most of them had taken overdoses previously. They had been in and out of detoxifications, treatment and prison. Their children have been taken away from them, and they have lost their relations to family members. During their journey they all stayed clean from drugs, and 8 months later they have still not used drugs. 

The idea around this treatment is to have a concret goal in parallel with the substance abuse treatment. Something that takes away their heavy minded thoughts. Shields them from their everydaylife out in the wilderness and hundreds of nautique miles at open sea. However, the most important argument is that the participants will feel a strong sense of empowerment. They all had to complete daily tasks as learning how to sail and navigate through difficult weather conditions, walk 7 hours per day in norwegian mountains and live together in tight places. 

This story was published in 2015 by Aftenposten National newspaper in Norway. In their weekly magazine called "A-magasinet". 

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