Targum spotlight: Vicious Cycle campaign pours out recovery resources over coffee

The Vicious Cycle, overseen by the Center for Communication and Health Issues and the Alcohol and Other Drug Assistance Program, is a campaign that seeks to end the stigma surrounding substance use disorder recovery among college students.

Nationwide research indicates that at least 2.6 percent of students are actively recovering from substance use disorder. At Rutgers, this number translates to approximately 1,500 students in recovery at any given point.

On designated days, posted on the program's Instagram, students can expect to see a bicycle with a bright purple umbrella, the color representing overdose and recovery awareness, and a portable coffee stand, both of which are emblazoned with the message "Free Coffee."

Students manning the bicycle provide visitors with cold brews in biodegradable cups and information about on-campus resources for students pursuing recovery, such as the Rutgers Recovery House.

The Recovery House is a discrete, on-campus housing option that provides students seeking support in recovering from addiction to alcohol or drugs with full-year housing, access to recovery professionals and a community of others navigating the same challenges to help them succeed.

For example, students in the Recovery House program have historically maintained grade point averages surpassing 3.0 since 2014. Just last year, seven students maintained a perfect score. Additionally, the longest-standing sobriety period maintained by a Recovery House student has surmounted six years.

Students could also pick up mental-health-related stickers and Narcan for free during a pop-up at Voorhees Mall on the College Avenue campus on Thursday.

Charlie Heap, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year and Recovery House resident working at the event, said that the initiative opens the door to people seeing the faces behind the Recovery House and reduces negative assumptions about recovery.

"(Substance use disorder is) prevalent everywhere in America, and Rutgers is just a microcosm of that," he said. "There is life without the use of drugs or alcohol, and we're here, we're living and (also) to just reduce the stigma that people (are) evil because they use drugs. They're using drugs, and it makes them act (in) certain ways."