Drug Addiction and Rehabilitation

Drugs, addiction, rehab; many people at even the thought of those words think of a criminal or someone that is constantly in and out of prison. A person that suffers from an addiction has to be from a poor background with no future to look forward to. They normally do not think of the soccer mom, the CEO, the people in higher positions in our society, etc. We do not want to think that anyone has the possibility to become addicted and dependent on a substance that is illegal.

What if people knew that most of the addictions start with substances that were prescribed by a doctor? What if people knew that most people with an addiction have what are called fully functional addictions? A functional addiction is one where a person is using the substance that is dependent upon while being fully capable of doing everything their life asks of them. Yes, these people have the possibility of losing everything and becoming what everyone fears; yet, they do not.

Drug addiction does not just affect the user in many cases. There are times where they harm others, make situations dangerous for people around them, and even commit crimes they normally would never consider doing. They have people that look down upon them and this can make it harder for those suffering to seek the help they need. Also, the lack of most funding is a big problem for most people looking for help. Most treatment facilities do not take most insurances so many times people are left with a bill. Treatment for drug addiction is not cheap, many people have no way of affording this, so they simply do not go seek help. Another factor is most regular doctors cannot refer people to treatment facilities. The addict has to find a rehab by their self and go through the process alone. This makes many not want to go.

There are some laws and other statues that help ensure people get the help that they need. There are ’37 states that have statutes that allow substance abusers who haven’t committed a crime to be detained against their wills for a period of time.’ This helps get people who have an addiction but have not committed a crime help so that they are in a safe space while getting off their drug-induced high. They do not have to just be anywhere with anything possibly happening to them. This keeps them safer. Some states are even trying to make it where the person can be detained for 30 days. I think that it would really help get people the help they need but do not think they need. This has actually helped many people get the help that they have needed.

Also, ‘In 2011, the court issued an opinion in Tapia v. United States that helped to clarify the role that courts can play in the recovery process for a defendant who is convicted of a crime and is experiencing substance abuse.’ This case helped path the way to get people with addiction problems the help they needed while they are serving their time for the crimes that they were guilty of. This helps so many people get out of prison and have a better life than just get out of prison with many of the same problems that sent them to prison.

Also, in the 1995 budget, Clinton earmarked an extra $1 billion for both the demand and supply fronts of the government’s drug policy. Clinton attracted the media’s attention when he doubled the spending on rehabilitation and prevention programs. However, more substantial increases were made for eradication programs and law enforcement. The 1995 budget included $13.2 billion for drug policy. $7.8 billion was spent on supply sided efforts, while only $5.4 billion was spent on education, prevention, and rehabilitation.

A policy that I think would greatly help with the problem that we have with people getting the help they need to get over an addiction is simply redoing how money is spent on the War on Drugs. As of right now, Georgia spends 14.4% of the state’s budget on all addiction-related things. Of the amount, two cents of every dollar goes to the treatment of helping addicted people. While a total of 96 cents go to paying for the failure to prevent this and treat the people suffering. Instead of paying more to push the problem under the rug maybe they should spend more to help fix the behavior and send people that are badly affected and addicted to drugs to treatment facilities. There should be a rewrite of the budget to help with treatment, not pay to fix the consequences of not giving help to those that are affected.

Another way that there could be a better way to help is finding the right treatment facility for people. Lots of times people are under the assumption that all facilities are the same, while they are not. Each one has different addictions that they can handle and deal with. The way that facilities find out if people are able to be treated there is through interviews. The person comes in and then they discuss all the addictions and/or behaviors that need rehabilitation and the facility demes if they are the correct place for them. In some cases, people have turned away from a number of facilities before they find one that has all the amenities to help with their addiction. Many people go through all of that only to be told that the facility is not able to handle them. This is already a lot for an addicted person to go through, they have to be willing to get the help and talk about all the problems they were facing, then to be turned away. That is normally enough to make the person not want to find another place for treatment. So, to make this easier, the thought of a database where people can list all of their addictions and problems to see which facilities they should look into. This will save the facilities money and the people time and money.

In conclusion, there are lots of things that were left unsaid about this topic. For example, there are no great ways to get someone help because the person with the addiction has to want the help before anything will work. There is also the thought process that only “bad and sketchy” people have drug addictions. This is wrong, there are many different people from all walks of life that struggle with addictions. It could be anyone from a mom with three kids, to the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company, to anyone really. There are no real set characteristics to having a drug addiction. Also, there is the big deal with the cost of treatment. Most average everyday people just don’t have the money for treatments. While there are grants and help from the government and other places it is just not enough for all the people that need help. As said earlier, most of the money that has to deal with anything to do with drugs and addiction mostly goes to fixing the problems that come from not helping the people who are addicted in the first place. It there was more put into treating the addictions, less would be needed to fix the problems that are the backlash of addiction.

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