Drug Addiction Expert Launches 'Currency of Recovery'

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. - July 16, 2018 - PRLog -- A drug addiction specialist recently launched Sobercoin, a digital currency that utilizes blockchain technology to incentivize people with substance use disorders to stay sober or get treatment.

"This is about accountability," said Dr. Harold Jonas, Ph.D., LMHC, and a licensed therapist is the founder and the CEO of Sobercoin. "As I watched the advances of digital currencies such as bitcoin that occurred last year, I thought that there had to be a way to harness to blockchain technology and use it to help people and really make an impact. Because that's what the goal is, to help people move ahead and improve the quality of their lives."

Jonas also highlighted that he has observed how addiction treatment patients can benefit from external incentives.

"Universally, we know that people respond to two things," he said. "They respond to pleasure - which comes from activities that reward them with dopamine floods, like sex or winning a game - or they respond to money. And since we can't access people's pleasure receptors to reward them, we can do it with money or rewards."

Jonas has also developed Anglestrong, an app launched last year to prevent relapses as well as other tech platforms like Sober Network and Sobersystems.

Those who use a Sobersystems app to check in and report sobriety for at least 30 days are rewarded with a Sobercoin and coins can be spent on membership fees for services provides by Jonas' networks, online addiction recovery coaching, training courses, and more.

There are future plans to allow the public to spend the currency on drug detox, sober housing, professional assessments, and medications.

"The industry is really set in its own ways in a lot of areas," Jonas said. "Innovation is still talked about but not adopted. This is why is this is a prototype model that we want to make sure work before we go to the next level with it."

https://www.drugaddictionnow.com/2018/07/16/delray-beach-...