South Florida group uses music to fight addiction

With a rising numbers of opiod overdoses, a South Florida group is adding new technique to help people overcome drug addiction. They're using music in every aspect of recovery.

Spearheading that movement is Richie Supa. The 72-year-old Grammy winning songwriter and singer began using drugs early in his musical career.

"I wrote great songs when I was high. When the drugs starting doing me, I started to write less and get high more and the next thing I know I was carrying wreckage. I wound up getting arrested and going to jail. You know it saved my life," he said.

Richie turned to a 12 step program and his passion for music, to keep him sober the past 27 years. 

A turning point came with the 1993 song, "Amazing," that he co-wrote with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. It was at a Narcotics Anonymous meeting that Richie heard the words that inspired the hit song.

"I told Steven Tyler this woman stood up at a meeting and said: 'I kept the right ones out and let the wrong ones in,' and he said, 'yeah, I had an angel of mercy to see me through all my sin,'" he remembered. 

The rest of the words were scribbled out during a plane ride. 

Today, Richie is creative director of Recovery Unplugged, a place where music transcends time, generations and societal barriers. He considers music as medicine. 

"Music is very non-threatening. There is nobody in the facility shaking their finger and saying, 'now listen this is what happens to your brain on drugs'. We call that the psycho-babble, we don't do that here," he explains.

Chief strategy officer and counselor, Paul Pellinger says music is changing the way he treats clients

"When I got into the addiction field in 1989, I was approaching treatment like I was being taught to do in school. Now that Recovery Unplugged is open, I feel like I have a renewed passion because we are making a difference, finally," Pellinger explained.

He uses music to build rapport with patients and help them discuss feelings.  

"I'll say to him, 'are you cool exploring a lyric that I think might be applicable to your situation.'  So if I say 'I'm better as a memory than your man,' does that make sense? And then we start collaborating on that," he explained.

Jose Larios has been fighting addiction for 15 years. After his last arrest, his gospel music roots guided him to Recovery Unplugged.

"I came to the reality that what else is it going to take. Nine years in prison, I’ve overdosed, I’ve been in a hospital with tubes in me, what is it going to take? I've lost everything multiple times. I believe I reached that emotional bottom," he said.

Ashley Braxton has been using drugs since age 15. She began using marijuana and alcohol and escalated to opiod pain pills and heroin. This is her second time at Recovery Unplugged. 

"I was a gymnast, I was a cheerleader. You know, I had goals for my life.  As soon as I started using drugs, everything kind of went out the window," she recalled, saying today, she has new hope.

Supa said, on the flip side of that hope is the harsh reality of the lifelong battle addicts face. 

"It’s a disease. It needs to be treated and looked at as a disease. The only way to get through it is to come to treatment. You learn how to do drugs, you have to learn how to recover," he said.

This week, Supa released "Enemy", his first album dedicated to recovery.  Proceeds will go the "Face the Music Foundation"  to help cover the cost of treatment. 

There are plans to add a second Recovery Unplugged Treatment center in Austin, Texas.