Ever since President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs in 1971, we've heard much talk about America's drug-prevention initiatives. Each year, billions of dollars are spent on keeping illegal substances out -- and reducing drug use nationwide. However, some argue the battle is ineffective or perhaps even counter-productive. Is this effort worth continuing, or is it time to search for alternatives?
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treatment still involves law enforcement
Nonsense - law enforcement is brutal and wasteful
Having worked in addiction treatment and with drug users not in treatment for decades I can say this notion of needing law enforcement or any other 'stick' type motivation is insane! The wast majority of persons with problematic drug use are very interested in good treatment and are often immediately ready to go to such!!
What anyone who believes in treatment needs to understand is that you have to have resources to operate it and using said resources on arrest, adjudication and incarceration makes sure that insufficient resources are available for treatments. In Illinois, we spend three times in incarceration of non-violent drug offenders what we spend on all treatment combined. While brutalizing thousands of people via the criminal justice system I cannot get people into treatment who desperately want it! Does this system make sense to you?
Please remember that the addiction treatment system is relatively young and being early in development it is prone to many errors -- one of the most common such errors now is operating in a fashion that mistreats and alienates participants, often ignoring evidence-based practices and hell bent on financial gain. In time, programs will look to science for guidance and be extremely healthy and useful so it makes sense to support them in this process.
- Chicago Recovery Alliance July 9, 2009 10:52AM
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