In Kentucky's Rehab Program, Guitar Making Helps Those Suffering From Addiction To Recovery

Hindman, Kentucky — Heartache has a way of crushing hope in Hindman, Kentucky, an outpost in the Appalachian Mountains.

Nathan Smith’s drug addictions took 20 years of his life. Pain pills after a work accident began his spiral, followed by crystal methamphetamine.

“You can go anywhere and find anything you’re looking for,” Smith told CBS News.

There were more than 109,000 drug overdose deaths in the US in 2022, in accordance with the latest projected figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than two-thirds of these, more than 75,000, were caused by synthetic opioidsCDC found.

“I knew that if something didn’t happen, I was going to end up in jail or I was going to die,” Smith said.

Hindman and its population of nearly 700 are in an area known as Troublesome Creek in Knott County, one of the poorest counties in the nation, with an overdose rate nearly triple the national average, according to numbers from the Appalachian School of Luthieria.

“There’s a crisis here,” said Doug Naselroad, who runs a Knott County rehabilitation program for former drug users.

The program has a dozen employees, all recovering addicts. Naselroad welcomes addicts and teaches them how to work with wood, specifically how to build guitars and break with use.

“The nature of making guitars, it’s a long curve,” Naselroad said. “Gratification is not instant.”

“(It’s the) opposite of drugs,” he adds. “You have to put a lot of manpower into building a guitar.”

Since 2012, more than 200 recovering addicts have gone through the program. They have built hundreds of stringed instruments sold in music stores nationwide. The program’s success rate is 71%.

“You know, a 71 percent success rate is also a 29 percent failure rate,” Naselroad said. “Not everyone can be successful. Some people just can’t break free.”

Smith has rebuilt his life here and has been clean for the past five years.

“Everybody deserves a second chance,” Smith said. “And all of us who have had a second chance have turned our lives around.”