Rural Nebraska’s Overdose Crisis: Undercounting and Budget Cuts Fuel a Deadly Detox Desert

In the quiet stretches of rural Nebraska, an invisible crisis rages—a crisis that official numbers stubbornly refuse to acknowledge. As the state government trims behavioral health funding, communities like Hastings find themselves trapped in what Revive Inc.’s CEO Kristine Kasperbauer aptly calls a “detox desert.”The abandoned Motel 6 on Hastings’ outskirts now buzzes with life as it transforms into one of only two detox centers serving Nebraska’s vast western region—an area spanning hundreds of miles with few alternatives for those battling addiction. Yet, even as Revive fills every available bed amid overflowing demand, state data reports shockingly low overdose deaths...