Someone passed a box of tissues to Sequoyah Thiessen. Child abuse, she told the Senate Health Committee, drove her to drugs at age 15. But at 22, she vowed to get sober.

Thus began a hellish descent into California’s private-pay, insurance-money-fueled segment of the addiction treatment system.

“Treatment,” she told the senators, was an oxymoron there. She endured violence, sexual harassment, emotional manipulation, cult-like environments, grotesque living conditions, forced relapses, constant displacement.

Against all odds, Thiessen said, she’s now sober and a student in Los Angeles  — but only because she extracted herself from the woefully under-regulated treatment system.

The emotional testimony of Thiessen — and others who shared tales of exploitation — formed the steely spine of hearings on two reform bills by State Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, on Wednesday, April 23. They’re among a batch of bills seeking to do what Thiessen said must be done: Have California acknowledge a moral responsibility for this crisis, and do more to protect vulnerable patients.

Senate Bill 35 would require state regulators to investigate complaints about unlicensed treatment homes within 10 days of receiving them, and finish those probes within 60 of starting them (currently, the timeline can extend for months — or even longer than a year).

If violations are found, state regulators would have to actually visit the site to ensure that corrections are made — what a concept! — and if regulators can’t do all that on time, county behavioral health officials could step in to investigate and enforce provisions.

Meanwhile, Umberg’s Senate Bill 83 would take a desperately needed step toward forcing regulators to stop hoarding life-or-death information. Officials would have to post at least some of the gory details about facilities in regulatory crosshairs — but are operating nonetheless.

“We’re pleased,” Umberg said after unanimous votes for both bills. One would empower counties to do what’s necessary to hold wayward homes accountable, and the other is essentially a consumer protection, he said. “For the first time, it seems like there’s critical mass in the Legislature to create some sort of transparency and accountability for wrong-doing in this space,” he said.

Keep reading here: Rehab Riviera: Heart-rending testimony pushes reform bills forward – Orange County Register