Robby Stempler, local founder of Hygea Healthcare, shared his journey from addiction to recovery and his mission to combat substance abuse in Baltimore. Struggling with Vicodin addiction a decade ago, he saw the need for better comprehensive addiction treatment and has developed a multi-faceted approach to treatment, including mental health support and job placement post-recovery.
Hygeia offers detox and recovery services, accepting all insurances, and aims to expand its centers across Maryland. Robby highlighted Baltimore’s historical role in the opioid crisis and the importance of integrating technology, like biometric data, to predict and prevent relapses. He also discussed the need for a multi-faceted approach to treatment, including mental health support and job placement post-recovery.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Addiction treatment, Hygeia Healthcare, Robby Stempler, Baltimore, sobriety, mental health, opioid crisis, detox, recovery, biometric data, EMR system, substance abuse, overdose, stigma, community support.
SPEAKERS
Nestor Aparicio, Robby Stempler
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We are Baltimore, positive. We’re taking the show on the road. I’m having the crab cake tour. Even though the Towson Tigers lost, we’re still going to CVP on Friday. I will be there this week, giving away the Marilyn lottery scratch offs and the magic eight ball. As we get into spring season, we will also be in my I don’t call it my homeland. I’m really from Dundalk. It’s Essex. We borrow it. It’s like their 51st state, if you will. In Essex, we’re going to go eat some pizza, pizza John’s next Friday. So come on out, my man, Dave, shining from the Washington Post, will be coming over. Little bit of a baseball preview, because the season begins the Thursday after Luke and I will be in the great Canada nation, the 51st state, as they call it there. We won’t call it that as we go. And I have my Canada hat around here somewhere. I am going to wear that in Luke and I are going to be doing opening day at the sky dome. If I just talk about Getty Lee, maybe they’ll be nice to me up in Canada right now, we have great things going on in Baltimore, and I try to focus on cool people doing stuff and building things. And I’ve spent so much time on addiction over the course of time in all sorts of ways. I mean, going back into the 90s, when I had addiction clinics and we would bring folks in like Robbie stempler to tell a story. He is a Baltimore guy doing a pretty cool thing here, taking a look at addiction. And I, I guess that the one thing that I noticed on Hygeia, and recently read a piece on I 95 great work with Vicky and the folks locally are featuring local people, just that. How many people I know that went to addiction once, twice, three times, four times. How many I’ve had to pray over, talk about honor in after their death. Both my parents were alcoholics, pretty candid about that. I have not battled that addiction during my life, but I know many, many people who have, and have come back. And more than that, it’s these incredible stories. Had a guy named TJ Humphreys on last month who was the big lottery winner up in Harford County, tickets for 20 years, helping people. There’s so many people to come back from addiction that help people. And Robbie step was one of those guys, and I’m looking forward to meeting him here and California rock and roll, show tune, sex, drugs, rock and roll, California, all that good stuff, and you’re back here helping people. It is a pleasure to have you on. And first things, first up on LinkedIn, I saw Emily Keller, so when I see her, she’s one of my Hagerstown people, the former mayor, the good mayor. She’ll always be a mayor, I guess. And it’s good to have you on. You have quite a story. Man,
Robby Stempler 02:36
thanks, man, I appreciate you having me.
Nestor Aparicio 02:38
Well, let’s start at the beginning. You’re from Baltimore, are you not and returning home here, and certainly your life and pathway, I don’t know, in 2010 you thought you’d be talking to some guy like me on the radio about something like this in 2025 Right? Definitely
Robby Stempler 02:55
not. I, it’s funny. I, I’ll say that getting addicted to drugs is the best thing that ever happened in my life. I reconnected with my best friend through going to rehab, coincidentally, at the same time, who is now my wife, and we have two children, and we wouldn’t be talking right now if I didn’t get addicted to drugs so well, man,
Nestor Aparicio 03:18
that’s a hell of a first thesis on the TED talk you just gave me there the first 30 it’s like you’ve done this before. Um, well, give your story. I mean, you’re a McDonough kid, local kid, right? And went off to college, to family, you know, living the life in Miami, California, you’ve been a lot of places right now, you’re like, five miles from where you were born, probably, right?
Robby Stempler 03:40
Hey, less than actually, I’m in mills and yeah, it was born and raised here, families deeply rooted here, both grandparents, born and raised here, grew up, went to McDonough. My grandfather was a successful entrepreneur. He had Fox automotives. So kind of always grew up.
Nestor Aparicio 04:00
My family bought a car from your family back up on a hill, up, put on you back again today with a big Fox on it, big inflatable Fox, right? Oh, yeah, yep. I remember so you were a kid visiting your grandfather there maybe run
Robby Stempler 04:12
around those dealerships as a kid, yeah, every, almost every Saturday and any day off at school. Always had fun. And grandpa really instilled that, like, entrepreneurial business side in me. Can
Nestor Aparicio 04:29
you sing any of the jingles or no? Do you have any of those in your Yeah? You smiling. You know, that’s how radio and media works. You sing a jingle in 1978 you remember 3025
Robby Stempler 04:43
you asked my grandfather if he was still alive. That is what changed. It was radio and TV, AD and director. We are a direct from the factory outlet dealer, every car dealer is, but just wording it that way made it seem. Like, Chevrolet was different than, you know, Fox was different than any
Nestor Aparicio 05:03
other major. Cars smell fresher, somehow, factory direct, right, redirect,
Robby Stempler 05:10
but, yeah, so, you know, grew up here. You know, had county upbringing, very you know, privileged upbringing. Went to Indiana, lasted two years, dropped out to start a hip hop record label.
Nestor Aparicio 05:29
Why did you go to Indiana? What were you going to be when you grow up? I mean, everybody has a different pathway the day they leave for college and thinking what they’re going to do.
Robby Stempler 05:37
I mean, at that point, it was just, I was young man. It was party girls, and, you know, wanting to have fun in business. I mean, I went there for business school, so it was always an entrepreneurial path. Grew up a computer nerd, so definitely wanted to do something, you know, tech related. But I was, you know, in hindsight, I wish I had more direction, you know. But you
Nestor Aparicio 06:06
find that along like, what a liberal arts education supposed to do for all of us, right?
Robby Stempler 06:09
Yep, yep. So yeah, hip hop
Nestor Aparicio 06:13
music, huh? You were going to be like a beastie boy. I
Robby Stempler 06:17
well, it feels really weird saying this now. So, like, you know, let’s, I’m prefacing it with that. But I wanted to be the, you know, Diddy of Baltimore, but not like bad boy, so I looked at hip hop as you know, these brands that represented cities. So you had like, so so deaf in Atlanta, you had bad boy in Rockefeller in New York. You had death row in California and like, Baltimore didn’t have, you know,
Nestor Aparicio 06:48
it didn’t have a Suge Knight, but, you know, it did have Cisco, you know what I mean? And we had thumb song, you know, we had things going on here, right?
Robby Stempler 06:57
Mario, we had, so I managed an extremely talented artist, DJ, producer, his name was black star, or his black star, and ended up moving out to LA and, you know, worked with some cool artists and did some cool things over the years.
Nestor Aparicio 07:15
Is this in the auths? What are we talking about here? What’s the time
Robby Stempler 07:19
frame? So this is like early two, 2003 to, like,
Nestor Aparicio 07:25
12. There you go. I was perfectly, right. Okay, I was, I was on it. So you go out to California, you’re involved in this, making some money, living your best life, right? I mean, using business skills that you were taught, right? To follow music you love the lifestyle you you thought you loved, right?
Robby Stempler 07:43
Yes, really, you know, realized
Nestor Aparicio 07:49
California knows how to party, right? California? Right in the city, right?
Robby Stempler 07:54
Took me. It took me a good I probably lived there eight years. It took me a good, like, six years to realize that this is all for the wrong reasons. And you know what I was doing, I remember being 20 and writing this list of like goals, and if I could check off each one of these goals, then, then I’m going to be happy, you know? And like, life is going to be great, and, you know, whatever. And I checked off all those, those, you know, that list, and I remember being at Coachella, which is a big music festival on stage, you know, headlining act, looking out at like 100,000 people. And just like being miserable, and just, you know, being like it was like a moment of clarity, almost where, like, this is all for the wrong reason. You know, I’m wanting to be in this entertainment space, not because it’s fun, but because of an outcome, because it looks cool, because it sounds cool, because, you know, I can talk about being in the studio with whoever, and smoked a blunt with this one. And, you know, whatever can I say that on here? Yeah, of course, you know. But just all the wrong reasons, not enjoying the ride at all, but searching for an outcome. And, yeah. Long story short, I was very depressed and always battled with mental health, depression and anxiety, um,
Nestor Aparicio 09:33
perhaps that’s why you medicated to begin with. That’s kind of hand in hand.
Robby Stempler 09:38
Found Vicodin, which was a great solution for depression and anxiety. And somehow, you know, over a 910, month period, I went from taking like a pill to 50 Vicodin a day. You know, I would wake up 7am top. In my mouth, and, you know, it was routine, and no one knew had, I mean, it was actually ironic, because people thought I was doing because I was, I was always a big partier, but if I drank with all that Vicodin, I would get nauseous. So I wasn’t drinking, I wasn’t doing any other drugs, but no one knew I was taking this Vicodin. So people thought I was like, sober and doing great. But meanwhile, I’m, you know, even like the girl.
Nestor Aparicio 10:26
What were the side effects of that? Because I I interviewed Brett Favre in the middle of his mess. I’m talking like 1997 he just won the Super Bowl. He came to Ed block out at Martin’s West High as a kite. I have pictures next to him. He’s really out of it. And then the thing broke about that not far after the first time I had heard of the drug, right? And now I hear about it a lot post op surgery. You know, my my wife, has had cancer twice, so I’m familiar with all sorts of weird drugs that I never would have known if she’d had leukemia twice. But the Viking Vicodin is a, you know, we’re going back 25 years now of that word being associated with anybody football, anybody that knew anything about Brett Favre, that was the drug, and it was commonly prescribed after knee surgeries, back surgery, surgeries, to otherwise people who thought that they were not they were immune to addiction of any kind, and said, I don’t even drink, man, but, man, that that makes me feel good, man, like there definitely was. I’ve heard that story from athletes all over, you know, since before I was great Robbie,
Robby Stempler 11:30
cuz it’s all, I mean, it’s the opiates, right? And, you know, Purdue pharma, these aren’t addictive. And getting the FDA to, you know, I don’t, I don’t want to go down that mess of a
Nestor Aparicio 11:41
train. Oh, we could do that all day, but I hear you. I mean, there’s a there, you know, there’s a reason all these drugs are on the street. We’re blaming it on fentanyl and all the stuff it’s it’s a human condition, right? I mean, more than, more than things that are being produced out there, there is a human condition. We have to stop people from wanting to have that feeling, right?
Robby Stempler 11:58
Well, yeah, I think it’s actually more of a mental health epidemic than a drug epidemic. I mean, they call them pain killers, because they kill pain, not just physical. I mean, they’ll kill mental pain too. And you know, Purdue pharma flooded the market with opioids, and then you take opioids away, then everyone’s got to turn the heroin because they’re already hooked. They got no choice at that point. And yeah, now today, we got fentanyl. And I mean it.
Nestor Aparicio 12:30
I there’s nowhere in the country you go where you don’t go into a CVS, and they’ve got, like, the Neo senephron Locked up because of television shows that show people had a, I don’t even know what the hell these show I’ve never watched, Breaking Bad, or any of that stuff and and again. And I’m curio sponsored, and I talk about all sorts of things that the plant does that don’t get you high, that make that can be helpful drugs, but the addictive part of the opioid addiction, and it brought me to Emily, and her run is and Hagerstown as mayor and now as the opioid chief, as directed by Wes Moore. I talk to her every summer about this, and I don’t know if we’re making a dent at all, but I know people like you have come back here into the community to work with humans who have problems here, and that’s really what the root of your business is all about here right now, right
Robby Stempler 13:18
exactly. I moved back here eight years ago, with a mission to build an addiction treatment ecosystem that could treat any kind of person as long as they were willing. Medicaid, you know, commercial, I don’t care what socioeconomic class you are, we can accept you. We take all payers. And you know, my goal over the next several years is to build as many of these centers in Maryland as needed to. I mean, because Merritt, Baltimore has over twice the amount of overdoses than the second highest area in the US. Think about that for a second. We are over 2x the second
Nestor Aparicio 13:58
why? Why is that? Why is Baltimore a place for this addiction?
Robby Stempler 14:03
It’s funny. I was talking to the Baltimore Sun last week, and for some reason, Baltimore became the heroin capital of the world in the 90s. Like, there’s not, like, you know, there’s no drug kingpin, like, you know, big meet, or, you know, like that. We could really, you know, freeway Ricky Ross or, you know, the celebrity or pseudo celebrity type drug dealers that brought crack to market or whatever. But for some reason, Baltimore City became the heroin capital of the world, and then when oxycontin hit, it took all the suburban kids and got them hooked, then they pull all the opiates off the market. So now they’re going into the city to cop heroin, and now it’s fentanyl. So if you’re the heroin capital in the world in the 90s, it only makes sense that you know you’re going to have the largest overdose crisis. Um. But with fentanyl hitting the market, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s worse than I could have imagined. Because, you know, after backing up a little when I got addicted to Vicodin, I went to treatment in South Florida and realized, really then that, like entertainment business, not for me. And while I was in treatment, I guess this is, like my entrepreneurial brain, I noticed that everything they were doing, like on the business side, was on paper. And that was shocking. And like, you know, this is little over 12 years ago now. Like, how are you guys using computers? Like, there’s not, like a, like, a medical record system or something. So while I was in treatment, I wire framed, which is like a fancy word of like, kind of designing or scoping out a EMR system for addiction treatment centers. Long story short, got out of treatment, met up with a group of people and built this company called Keep who, k, i, p, u, which is an EMR software so that was actually like my first entry into the business side of addiction treatment. During that time, I opened up some centers in California because I had a lot of clients that needed detox and sold that company June of 23 but always plan to, you know, move back to Baltimore to build the ecosystem here. So, like, I’m a startup guy. So once you know, I don’t know, it took us probably five, six years to get, keep you to a point where it was like big business now, we got a couple 100 employees. It’s very departmentalized, predictable. It’s very boring to me. So that’s when I moved back to Baltimore and started on this mission of building these properties. And it, it took me so the the picture that you saw with Emily and Wes and I is that the ribbon cutting of of this detox I built in Middle River, 50 bed detox that I built. Now that’s
Nestor Aparicio 17:15
my side of town, right? We’re going to be in Essex next week. I think I you knew that at Pizza Johns, you know, I’m from Dundalk, and you know, my dad worked at the mill. My dad came to Baltimore and Essex in the 1940s to build bombers at Martin Marietta, just the east side of town. And the devastation of economy, the next thing that happens, right, is addiction. You know, in any that that’s an that’s an American story. I don’t know if that’s a worldwide story, but that’s been the story in this country, that the, you know, when the economics goes down, then the jobs go down, the addiction goes up. I think that
Robby Stempler 17:52
that’s what happened. I mean, if you look back at Baltimore in the, you know, 5060s like it was a thriving African American community, and there were all of these, you know, steel, the job force was thriving, and then they took all of these factory you know, all the factories shut down, all the union jobs went away. And, you know, the 80s hit, and it’s like a forgotten generation. And now you’re like seeing, I was talking to a guy yesterday who was in my office, who served from Baltimore. He actually managed Mario, coincidentally, but he was telling me when he was serving time, he had a guy in jail with him who was addicted to drugs and, you know, did some robbery. His son was in jail at the same time, did drugs, addicted to drugs, did a robbery, and the grandson was in jail at the same time because of drugs and a robbery. So that’s three generations in jail together for the same exact reason. I mean, you know, the what has gone on in Baltimore City over the last several decades is it’s almost just like a forgotten I mean, that’s why I don’t you read the Baltimore banner and New York Times piece over the summer. I mean, I was, Are you familiar with that? To
Nestor Aparicio 19:19
educate our audience. By the way, Robbie step was our guest from IG a local guy. We could talk ravens and Orioles and do all that stuff. We’re talking more important stuff with him in regard to substance abuse and addiction and what’s going on here, literally, on the streets of Baltimore, where people like you are stepping in and saying, I’ve got a different way to treat people, right?
Robby Stempler 19:39
Uh, yeah, trying. The model is, is definitely broken. I think we need to. What did you see about
Nestor Aparicio 19:47
that that was broke? Let’s go back to Coachella. You’re on stage. Your eyes a kite on Viking, and nobody knows. They don’t smell weed, they don’t they don’t have liquor or any of that stuff, right? Like none were. Was anybody in your world aware of. 550 Viking in a day, like crazy, no, no,
Robby Stempler 20:03
and and then the Coachella. I wasn’t on Viking yet. I wasn’t even, like, on, you know, I mean, I part, like, partied, but like, didn’t have a drug problem. Um,
Nestor Aparicio 20:12
biking, it made you happy. You were seeking happiness with it, correct? Well, you got so
Robby Stempler 20:17
depressed that when I I got introduced to, like, I don’t even, like, remember how someone handed me a pill and I took it and,
Nestor Aparicio 20:26
but you didn’t have a, you didn’t have a back surgery. I mean, a lot of people with Vicodin, that’s their introduction to it. I didn’t realize it was such a street thing, like, it was a joy drug in that way, was at
Robby Stempler 20:37
a party. And, you know, it’s that LA scene and it did, and it was like, Oh, this is what I’ve been missing. Like, this is amazing. Like, you know, and I can’t even tell you how it went from that to a month later, I’m taking it every day. Like, I don’t know how that even happened, but to the point where it got to, you know, because her tolerance gets so high that one, you know, the effect of one changes to two to four to eight to 10, you know. So when it got to the the 50 a day, no one knew. I mean, my, I was living with a girl that at least I was planning on proposing to. She had no idea. I mean, no, the only person that knew I was on Vicodin was my drug dealer. That was it. I was, you know, functioning, you know, I’m very OCD routine. So even, like, in that sense, it was, like, woke up at this time, took the pills at this time, took the pills at that time, took How long did this go on? Robbie, probably on a daily basis, 1011, months.
Nestor Aparicio 21:47
Okay, so inside of a year, you’re like, I got a problem. Where’s your bottom on this? I mean, were you you weren’t robbing people to get your drugs right? You had money right? You know, a lot of those kinds of things that other people do when they get jacked up on this stuff, they they break laws and things. You were just abusing yourself, basically, right? I was
Robby Stempler 22:08
so it got to the point where I was so miserable, and I realized that, like, you know, this isn’t maintainable. Like, at this, you know, the amount that I’m consuming is not maintainable. And, you know, to me, like heroin, then you’re like, a drug, you know, like, it wasn’t like there were strong, I don’t know there were stronger stuff out there. I guess that would have been cheaper. But my girlfriend at the time, was going home, back to Atlanta for five days over Christmas, and my plan was that I’m going to detox myself, and I spaced out enough pills so that I would drop her off at the airport and then, you know, stay in my house for five days and get myself completely off of this, because I knew she wanted to, you know, get engaged. And, you know, I was like, I can’t manage business engagement, letting and, you know, Vicodin addiction all at once. So I get back to the house, I think I lasted three hours before I was like, Alright, I can’t do this. And went and called my drug dealer. And, you know, spent the next five days taking drugs. And then when she got back, sat her down and said, Hey, I got a you know problem. I’m, you know, been taking Vicodin for this amount for this long, and I’m going to go to treatment. I had set up treatment while she was away, so she took me to the airport December 31 I don’t know why I like, I didn’t wait to I don’t know New Year’s Eve. Dropped me off at the airport, flew to Florida, went in.
Nestor Aparicio 23:53
Why Florida, by the way, like, I mean, where it feels to me like people pick addiction centers and or they’re picked for them. In many cases, people know they need to get help, don’t some people go in. Don’t really want help. Going fighting, you know, like the Amy Winehouse song, right? Or, God rest her soul. But like, and then some people say, I want this, not that, that, not the other. I want to go to Florida, not Minnesota. I want to be inside out. I don’t know what choices you’re given, you opted, nobody put you in handcuffs and threw you in right? You chose?
Robby Stempler 24:25
Yeah, no, this was solely like, you know, I that’s
Nestor Aparicio 24:29
unusual, though, correct,
Robby Stempler 24:32
very lucky. Yes, okay, we’ll call it’s called a an emotional bottom where there was nothing else that you know. I’m fortunate that it wasn’t, you know, legal, money, whatever it was, just solely emotionally. I want to not feel like this anymore, and I want to get help. And I had a friend that had dealt with that, and called him, and he. Was like, go here. And I said, okay, and flew to Florida and went to treatment. And, yeah, that’s what
Nestor Aparicio 25:10
did you know about treatment at that time? I mean, you’re the music other people you you weren’t the first guy you know to went to rehab, right? I mean, so yeah, did you know people who had been successful, or people who had failed, or people who come back said, Don’t you want to go there? Like, Jack Nicholson and one flew over to cuckoo, you know, like, like, that’s not a place you want to go. Obviously, none of us want to go there, right?
Robby Stempler 25:31
I mean, I, I wouldn’t. I think that that’s part of the stigma that needs to change that like, you know, like, you don’t want to go to the, you know, I don’t know the orthopedic when you break your arm, but it’s not, you know, you don’t, you don’t think of it the same way as, like, you don’t want to go, but that’s really, like, how it should be thought of. You
Nestor Aparicio 25:55
should think about the place that’s going to heal you or help you heal, yeah, people that are there, right? No, it’s
Robby Stempler 25:59
not, you know, but, yeah, no, I knew. I mean, there’s a family history of of mental health and addiction. You know, my best friend in the world went to rehab in and out since we were 18, and unfortunately, overdosed and died about I don’t know, six, seven years, seven years ago, that was like when he died. His name was Larry, um, that is when I was like, I’m done with, you know, EMR and business to business like I really want to just focus on treating people and trying to build, you know, facilities that are actually going to, like help people and not deal with treatment center owners anymore, because now I know why
Nestor Aparicio 26:57
you’re friends with Emily Keller, because she told me the same exact story of losing a friend, it inspired her an insurance business, to run for mayor. She’s now the czar of the state, and many of you do have a story of like losing someone so important to you that it moved your life into this direction, right?
Robby Stempler 27:13
Emily, I’ve been fortunate enough to be to you know, know what Governor Moore for a little while now, and he introduced us, and she’s been, she amazing. I mean, thank thankfully for both of them, you know, Governor Moore and her, that they at least understand that there is a horrible issue here. Now it’s, how do we, like, make a change and fix
Nestor Aparicio 27:42
it well, and also the government getting involved in it, right? Because this was always somebody else’s problem for 50 years, and that’s the city, that’s the county, that’s Annapolis, that’s the hiding it too. Oh, yeah. We don’t have that problem in Hagerstown because we don’t have people of color there. We don’t have this or that. We we have Republicans. We don’t have Democrats. No, we, have a problem everywhere, everywhere in the state, everywhere in this country. Robbie stepplers here, he’s representing a company called hygiene. We talked about your prime business war, and just telling your story and and again, we get to sit here and talk about Lamar and Derek, Henry and D hot. We could do all of that football stuff. Yeah, yeah. But you see, I mean, it’s fresh. It’s all fresh here. Tell me about it. Tell me about what your story because I’ve read about your work and being here. But you have a real vision, and you’re not doing this to take it to California. You’re already taking it. You’re back here and really finding your roots in Baltimore and your family McDonough and all the things going on here in the community about how your treatment is different, but you know in the way that you saw it from the inside. So please tell me, if people come to you and they have a loved one, what is that pathway to finding someone like you and finding a better future, quite frankly?
Robby Stempler 28:52
Um, I mean to reach out to us directly, go to Hygeia, dot health. Um, gotta spell that for me, h, y, G, E, A, dot health, that’s it.
Nestor Aparicio 29:02
That’s simple health
Robby Stempler 29:04
and call and you know, 24/7 available and can accept emissions. 24/7 currently we have three locations, all levels of care. Like I said, the 50 bed detox built from the ground up. Took, I don’t know, five years, and by $20 million investment over those five years, all privately funded, but I knew I needed to partner with the the government. That was my thing was like, you know, we need to all get aligned, and the private and public sector need to work together to solve this. So let me, like, kind of show improve what I can do and what I want to do, and paint my vision like so that it’s actually a reality and you can see it. And then you guys will, you know, trust that it’s not. Just, you know, some BS, and you know, all the fraud that’s going on right now. If you know, there was an article a couple days ago about, you know, the Medicaid fraud in Baltimore city with a substance abuse centers, and it’s bad. It’s well,
Nestor Aparicio 30:18
what makes your your treatment, and what was your treatment in Miami? I mean, you seem to have come out of this pretty quickly on Vicodin and finding life in your own business and selling businesses. What changed things for you? Obviously, the sickness itself. It feel like you didn’t want to feel that way. That’s the first admission to saying I want to feel differently. I would think a lot of these places are very educational, supportive, finding goals, hobbies, dreams, visions, you know, self studying. I would think, how long was your treatment? And what I mean,
Robby Stempler 30:56
treatment itself for me was was, you know, 30 days, and then I went to a sober living for four months, but, but I think, you know, I don’t know, I hate labels, but it’s a lifelong process, like, like, I I’m still, like, I see a therapist twice a week, still, I mean, and that’s, you Know what, works for me to, you know, stay in check and make sure that I’m, you know, not going the wrong way, or, you know, feeling well, accountability
Nestor Aparicio 31:31
is
Robby Stempler 31:32
everything right, yeah. But I think that that’s like, you know, we’re all searching for, like, some sort of peace and purpose. And the beauty of treatment is it gives you, like that time out where you can really psychoanalyze yourself and hopefully discover, you know, what that is, that that gets you going, you know, like, because that’s that’s different for everyone. But there’s, I believe, every human has some like gift or some passion that you know they either too scared to go after or don’t know about or have given up on, or whatever, you know, but you know at the end, we want to just do something where we feel fulfilled and happy, I mean, and that’s like, that’s how I check my life now, is if I wake up, you know, too many Monday mornings and go to bed Sunday nights where I’m not Looking forward to Monday morning then, like, I gotta make something to change, you know, because I look, you know, 75% of the time. I mean, you can’t ever, you know, enjoy everything 100% of the time, but 75% of the time, I can’t wait to go to bed Sunday night so that I can wake up Monday morning and and, you know, get back to it and work and do the things that we’re doing. I think, you know, one of the biggest differentiators for Hygeia specifically, is, is technology. My, my background, you know, with the EMR and even before that in the music industry was, was, was tech based. So I created this company called preta, which analyzes biometric data. So whether you know, through like a wearable. So I’m from Dundalk,
Nestor Aparicio 33:34
come on now, biometric data, you gotta and you’re going, EMR, you’re not allowed to drop anything
Robby Stempler 33:40
or Okay, EMR is like an electronic medical records. Like, you go, when you go to the hospital, you see the doctor, you go to your primary care, and they’re typing in the computer. They’re typing your information into an EMR. And then that’s, you know, HIPAA. You’ve, I don’t know if you’ve heard of HIPAA, but that’s
Nestor Aparicio 33:56
protect that’s my sports writer’s side of like, why we’re not a lot of talk about injuries with John
Robby Stempler 34:01
Harbaugh, so, got it, got it.
Nestor Aparicio 34:05
But hip bows are at the zoo. We’re going over there next week too. So yes,
Robby Stempler 34:11
but Biomet like a Fitbit or an Apple watch or an or a ring, those are all wearables that are, you know, getting part rate, SBO to step counts, sleep activity. You know,
Nestor Aparicio 34:25
my wife is as a monitor for diabetes, and, you know, her phone. I mean, the technology part of all of this, even our ability to zoom together here today, but to learn about when people come in, what are you studying there in regard to things that they couldn’t have done 1520, years ago.
Robby Stempler 34:43
So it’s more for kind of when they leave, to be honest, but we do utilize it while they’re in treatment. The idea is so much of success, or where really my like thesis at the beginning, when I came up with it, was so much of success that. First Year is maintaining a healthy routine. So go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time, go to the gym, do whatever. You know, if you follow your routine, generally you feel good. When you don’t feel good is when you stop doing you
Nestor Aparicio 35:13
won’t have time for drugs. You won’t be thinking about that, right? Okay, that missing part is not you know, you’re
Robby Stempler 35:18
not following that routine that you know, made you feel good, and that’s usually when you start feeling bad. You stayed out late, and whatever the case is, so biometrically, I can see what someone’s routine is through algorithms that that I developed. And the idea was that anytime somebody goes outside of their routine, that probably is an indicator that there’s something not right. So some sort of intervention would be needed. Maybe that’s a phone call to say, Hey, how you doing? Maybe that’s, you know, a relapse, and we need to get you back in the treatment.
Nestor Aparicio 35:55
But if the measurements won’t lie, but the person will Yes,
Robby Stempler 35:59
and that’s the whole, you know, as long as we’re getting that’s
Nestor Aparicio 36:04
why we can piss test, just in a general sense, right? Like, we’ll get the answer correct, but, you know,
Robby Stempler 36:11
with AI, yes, exactly. But the hope, like, we’re doing a study right now with Harvard McLean, where we’re very confident we’re going to publish it at the end of this year, that we can identify cravings through the ring, through the wearable, and whether people know it or not, anytime before they use they have a craving. You know, even like, if it’s sugar you create, you
Nestor Aparicio 36:35
have physiological right? That’s science, right? So
Robby Stempler 36:39
we can physiologically see through the biometric data when a craving occurs, we do have that formula. Now it’s just, can we do it with these kind of devices, and is the battery life strong enough currently that it’ll last long enough at the rate that we need to see the data. So you know that, but I think that that’s, I mean, healthcare as a whole is following that, you know, predictive model then then treating like, let’s figure out, through AI, through technology, how we can predict what’s going to happen in the future so we can prevent it, and now it’s preventable, as opposed to we’re treating it after it’s already happened. So you know, if we can see that someone’s having a craving, I can intervene before they use that drug, because they’re going to have that physiological response before they use whether they know it or not. Could be a minute, could be five hours, could be three days, but they are going to have that physiological response before they use again. So
Nestor Aparicio 37:50
you’ve been around town and you’ve seen hygieia, h, y, G, E, A health care. This is Robbie steemler. He is the founder of all things Hygeia and helping people with addiction and three centers. Where are your centers right now? Robbie, currently,
Robby Stempler 38:04
one’s in Baltimore City, off of Bel Air Road, 6415 Bel Air road, the
Nestor Aparicio 38:12
inside the beltway, about a mile and a half. Then, okay, I know my my address is right
Robby Stempler 38:17
next to the hot pizza spot that Dave Portnoy went to, nice,
Nestor Aparicio 38:22
yeah, right at the city line. Pretty much, yeah. Literally,
Robby Stempler 38:26
right, yeah, right the city line. Then Middle River is the second location. And then I have a third location in camp Meade. So it’s like, right near the airport, right in linthicone, well, but
Nestor Aparicio 38:37
goal wise, for you, for the state, and at some point I’ll have Emily on as well and talk about you and people like you, having these centers for the community to help people is, is the next thing, a placement, in regard to people getting jobs, housing, when people come to you, I mean, there really is a wrap around element of so many these things. You know when I speak about this, whenever I speak to somebody like you about my wife and being at Hopkins and having cancer and leukemia, and all of the women issues, post drug issues, mental health, just all of that, man, they throw you out of the cancer center, put the dipstick in and say, Yeah, we don’t see any cancer. See you later. And it’s sort of like, whoa, whoa, whoa. There’s a whole lot of other issue went on there in two years. I would think the same thing would be true for anyone coming to you, that they would come out and have job, money, other gambling, other things, family issues, above and beyond, just hey, I’m not using the drugs anymore, which is the first thing, right? But it’s not the only thing.
Robby Stempler 39:45
No, that’s just the, you know, the solution. That’s not even the problem. That was the solution for a while, until it stopped working. Um, you know, the the goal, I think we need, probably, you. Two to 300 400 maybe more beds to fill the need that the state’s currently experiencing. The detox is really just, you know, I look at it as a hub and spoke model, kind of which is a model that was created in Vermont, but different than what I want to do, because there’s was more methadone, like maintenance, drug, M, A, T type stuff, which you probably don’t know, it’s all good, but the detox is the hub that you start at. But then I want to build as many spokes around the state as needed, so that we have that step down level of care, where we, if we can, the only data that people know is that the longer you stay in a continuum of care, the higher the success rate. That’s it like there’s, there’s no other way that anyone’s even tracking data. I mean, how would you even define success time? Is the measurement, right? Yeah. But like, you know, we’ve been so Pro for so long until, I mean, even so now, this 12 step aa model has been what the norm is, and it’s, yeah, I mean, an AA, I got sober through AA, so I, you know, I’m not, I think those programs are great. But in the 1930s when it was created, Bob and Bill and Dr, Bob and bill, it was as a last resort, like, You’ve tried everything else in the world to stop drinking alcohol, but you’re still waking up with the bottle in your hand, and before you’re like, going to blow your brains out, let me try a somewhere along the way, it became like the first solution and what addiction treatment was modeled after. So there hasn’t been any data that people have looked at and, you know, have studied and analyzed to see what is like. The best way to treat this like this isn’t a one size fits all type thing. Is this more mental health related, or is this more substance use disorder related? If it is, is it this type of therapy that’s better? Should we, you know, do some CBT or, you know, like humans are all different. We’re intricate people. So there can’t just be one approach for, you know, this broad, you know, and and when that aa was created, like there wasn’t oxycontins, there wasn’t, you know, this, this pharmaceutical, it’s also hell of a stigma about it, too, yeah. So I have this nonprofit called fuck the stigma that I started a couple years ago after the stigma.com where we do podcasts and we just interview people to try to just break the stigma. I mean, it’s literally, that’s all it is. The stigma is getting better, but it’s still out there. I mean, you know, you still talk to people that are like, what
Nestor Aparicio 43:06
like well, I mean by when I hear people say, I’m in recovery, that tells me kind of all I need to know is they’re offering that up, that they’re that they’re vulnerable to some degree, I think that that’s, it’s an admission of that. I think it’s also an admission of triumph to some degree, that we’re all trying to get through it. You’re trying to get through it as well. Robbie steeplers here. He’s with hygieia health care. They’re local. He’s local Pikesville, Owings Mills, Baltimore, their locations in Middle River and in on the the northeast side of Baltimore, as well as down in the Fort Meade area. You can find him out on the internet. You can find him through me out of Baltimore. Positive, hey man, next time we get together, we’ll get together, we’ll get a little football in here. We’ll get a little sports and and some of that. But for anybody out there, if they what is that step to reach to you and your organization? If anybody out there knows somebody, we’re doing gambling addiction this month as well, that’s another issue, but
Robby Stempler 43:59
that’s the next opioid. And I think telehealth, I’m developing something for that right now, actually, that I’d love to talk to you about at some point. Well, I mean, but in this particular big epidemic, like in five years from now, gambling is going to be the new opioid addiction.
Nestor Aparicio 44:19
You know? Well, it has all of the the attributes of coming back every day and getting hooked, right? I mean, I don’t think there’s any question about that, and we talk about it all the time here about it’s gotta be fun, if, if, if it starts to worry, or if it’s keeping you up all night, it’s a problem no matter what it is, right? Like, literally, uh
Robby Stempler 44:37
huh, um. But you can connect with us. Hygeia, dot health, h, y, G, A, dot health, or call 410-512-9525, 24/7, there’s someone there to answer. We can take an admission. 24/7 you know, just whatever. Ever we can do to help, just trying to do our part and make Baltimore and Maryland a better place. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 45:07
I’ll tell you what, I’ll I’m going to reach Governor Moore as well as Emily. I can reach to Emily anytime, bring her back on as well. I haven’t had her on in about six months. We usually try to get together this time of year, talk about things in springtime as well. And you know, it’s tough with her because her football team did better than our football team this year. So I ain’t had to talk about that in like 30 years, which is crazy. So I’m Lee, anybody wearing burgundy and gold, I’m leaving them alone right now, but I am referring to them as the Maryland commanders, just because we’re paying for it anyway. So Robbie, I appreciate you and all the mutual friends we have out there. Keep up doing the great work, and I hope to have you back at maybe for a crab cake sometime soon, we’ll do that. Alright,
Robby Stempler 45:42
yeah, my pleasure. And thank you. I appreciate you taking the time. I appreciate storytelling,
Nestor Aparicio 45:46
man. We’ve got great stories everywhere here this week. Rick Emmett from the great rock band triumph, joined us this week, as well as John Palumbo. We’re getting all over the place talking about stuff we’re doing, the Maryland crab cake toward Friday at CVP in Towson, hoping to have some Towson representatives. We were hoping the Tigers were going to make March Madness. This year, we’ve had some great COVID state visitors. This week we have me act basketball action here at am 1570 with our COVID state partners as well. This week, the Maryland crab cake Tour is presented by the Maryland lottery. I will have the magic eight balls to give away, not just at CVP. This week, we’re going to be at Pizza John’s in Essex next Friday. It’s kind of our baseball preview. Luke Jones is going to join us as well as Dave shining from the Washington Post. And for all of you out there, West siders, South siders, North siders, bagging on East Side pizza. If you haven’t been to Pizza John’s, come on out next friday, the 21st I’ll buy you one with the pepperonis with the little cups on it. It’ll be delicious. Come on down to back river neck road. We’ll be there on Friday, giving away magic eight ball tickets and talking Oreo baseball in springtime. I love it. Luke and I are going to be in Toronto two weeks from now. I will shave up nice, get my hair out. I look like Eddie Lee and and I will have my my Canada hat on, just so they let me in. God bless us. We’re going to war with Canada. I’m Nestor. We are W, N, S, D am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive. Hey,
Robby Stempler 47:08
yes.
