incitingsilence

The article is also preying on the fears of families. Surely everyone knows by now what happened the last time the families fears were preyed upon ... Heroin is thriving in that wake.

BlueChair

I think 12 step facilitation is the counselors who are trained to help people accept 12 step programs and work on their steps. I think this is where you see lots of people in recovery who used this approach go into work where they give back their knowledge and try to help others get into the program and find abstinence. Sometimes I read here on SR and people talk of their counselors helping them with their step work. My counselor was trained in it too and spent a whole session explaining this approach and other ones to me. I asked her to because I was very confused and tired of trying to put all the pieces together on my own.

Its the facilitation part = evidence based = methods used to encourage people to work the 12 step program.

BlueChair

Thank you, good article

CaringScared

I just finished a book that speaks to these issues: "Chasing the Dream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs," by Johann Hari. Thorough-going exploration of the roots of addiction and the impact prohibition has on our communities. I loved it. I never would have suspected that legalization/decriminalization could have such a good effect on communities, but that's what they are finding in Switzerland, Portugal, and Uruguay.

People close to me can't stop their crack addictions. Think what legalization could do:

1. Allow addicts to use in safe houses where they are monitored, have medical care, and have the possibility of getting help with decreasing or ending use, getting jobs and getting back to life. Studies show that most addicts in the safe houses actually decrease their use, long term.

2. Restore some peace to relations between addicts and their loved ones, as we would no longer be at perpetual war with each other.

3. Remove some of the stigma from addiction and counter the trauma and isolation many addicts experience. This would help to decrease the need to use.

4. Communities would be safer and violence would go down. The criminal gangs/drug mafia would be dethroned.

I know it's controversial, but the book is persuasive. We family and friends of addicts--and addicts themselves--are shouldering too much alone. Society as a whole needs to come together to help solve this issue. We should get real about what works--because there really are systems that do work to drastically reduce suffering. Addicts are human beings and there are ways we can bring them back to us. Prohibition does not work.

hopeful4

I don't know. Legal or not, when someone is doped out on crack it's their behavior that is going to make them unacceptable.

I agree we need to come together and recognize what a huge problem it is. I wish I knew the answers. My marriage was ruined b/c I was living with an active alcoholic. It was legal. His behavior made it unacceptable, not the actual act of drinking itself.

I dunno...

CaringScared

That makes sense to me.

I am no expert, but it seems to me that taking away from someone a drug they feel they need is part of what makes that person violent. If they are using it in a safe house, this is countered.

AnvilheadII

as a former crack addict i can't possibly think of a WORSE idea than to
a) legalize it and
b) give them "safe" places to smoke

you put a bunch of fiending crack heads together and there ain't NO place safe enough. crack addicts aren't known for their philanthropy, they don't share so well.

auroraxborealis

Housing First options have been explored as an approach to alcoholism. I believe they started in Oregon/Washington areas, and we have one in Anchorage that's about three years old. The idea is that safe housing is a right, not a privilege. From what I understand, there are no requirements for employment or limits on alcohol consumption (assuming residents must be of legal drinking age).

We had a lot of resistance in Anchorage. People weren't accepting of the idea of housing people who just drink their lives away. But despite what might be the "gut" perception, residents have been shown to slow drinking and become more productive and healthy.

I believe these findings are pretty standard. I'm not sure this approach has been studied in other drugs.

zoso77

And who pays for this?

CaringScared

Ending the drug war would free up money to treat addiction.

I understand the objection about crack, but part of the point of such safe houses would be to keep the rest of the community safe from users. And as mentioned, while it is counter-intuitive, safe houses have shown success in getting users to reduce their use. Why shouldn't more options be on the table when our present system has such a poor success rate? I just honestly wonder.

zoso77

Well, from a small c conservative point-of-view, I have an issue with my tax dollars going towards treating drug addiction. The moment someone gives themselves permission to go down the road of hard drugs, I believe they should own that problem, and that includes funding their own treatment.

My two cents.

auroraxborealis

I deal with enough political talk IRL but tax dollars that go into preventative treatment are usually a far better investment than going into "reactive" measures. Think reduced emergency room visits, lower incarceration costs, etc. I read today an estimated cost of housing an inmate in AK is around $140/day while a bed in a local residential treatment facility is around $110. But there are only 18 beds.

I remember when "Obamacare" passed. I had a friend who argued he didn't want his money to pay for lung cancer treatment of a smoker. My counter was what about a knee replacement of an avid runner?

BlueChair

I agree on the point about paying for treatment. I often hear people happy someone was arrested and hopeful they will now be forced into treatment. But who is paying for their treatment when its enforced by the courts? I think its working people who pay taxes, like me and my husband. And then if they get poor treatment options percentage wise its unlikely to help much, and the cycle repeats. I dont know the solution because everything cost $ but I think the whole process needs a lot of change, its not working too good from what I see.

I like to hear varying viewpoints. Thanks for sharing about the book CaringScared. There were some threads that came about after an article by that author was published, but I havent read the book. Maybe I will add it to my list. You would recommend?

AnvilheadII

i'm with zozo on this....why should i have to pay for someone else's drug problem? why should i pay to give an addict a "safe" place to get high? or clean up? nobody took care of me in my addiction, made sure i was safe, and nobody raced to help me out of the mess i made. NOR SHOULD THEY. whatever happened to personal frickin' responsiblity? we are all turning into a big bunch of enablers, i swear.

there are THOUSANDS of treatment centers in the US (sorry that's the country i'm familair with, can't speak for others). according the the National Institute on Drug Abuse there are over 14,500 centers.........

and there are 63,000 NA groups in 132 countries.

and 59,565 AA groups in the US.

for comparison, there are 21,366 Starbucks worldwide, and yet it seems like there is one on every block.

IT IS EASIER TO FIND HELP FOR ADDICTION THAN IT IS TO FIND A GOOD LATTE. but there's always a line at Starbucks....why? because people want what they have. they don't need to be dragged, or intervened upon, or receive community support.

help for addiction already exists. but the addict has to want to get in line, suit up, show up, do the work, and by all means QUIT USING.

whew, rant over

cynical one

At $500 per second, by the time I finish this sentence the $4,029,713,628 that we have spent on the War on Drugs will have gone up by $30,000. It would be a hard sell to the public to use that money to pay for a month of rehab for addiction treatment rather than a years tuition for a promising student at a university. I too do not know what the solution is. But, I sure know what it isn’t, and that is to continually bash a form of treatment that is affordable and available to everyone.

Morning Glory

Here is one of our rules which doesn't get quoted much on the Friends and Family forums so I'll post it as a reminder.

GardenMama

The reporter who wrote the article posted by BlueChair was just interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air.

FRESH AIR interview

I really appreciate you bringing this article to my attention, BlueChair, but I have not really enjoyed the conversation that it sparked here.

The whole system for treating addicts is flawed, unequal, and insufficient for long-term recovery for many suffering from addiction. I find self-righteousness to be our worst enemy when thinking about how we as a society can solve this problem. I admit, I have the "it takes a village" mentality, but as a mother of a recovering addict, I am grateful for anything and any program, person, medication, or approach that helps my dear daughter gather her strength and courage to remain sober. I know I am not responsible for my daughter's addiction, and I know that if she knew at 16 what heroin would do to her, she would never have ever tried it. Judge her if you will. I cannot. I am incredibly grateful for the methadone program she is in, for the state aid she receives, for the care that she is getting from county and private organizations. She alone is responsible for not using, but how can we sit in judgment of how her journey unfolds and who helps her and who pays for it?

A mother I know just lost her 19 year old son--her only child--on Saturday to a heroin overdose. She is part of a group of mothers in my state who have been working tirelessly to educate the public about narcan, about subpar treatment centers, about the myths of addiction. She had a terrible time this past year getting her son into a program in her county. There are waiting lists, no access to suboxone or methadone in many of them...meanwhile, our children die. Is it their fault?

I hope we can be more gentle with each other here when it comes to how our loved ones recover. We may all know addicts, but we have not all had the same experiences with recovery and treatment. Blaming the addict is the easiest thing to do.

BlueChair

Thanks Gardenmama good interview!

greeteachday

Closed Thanks for those who provided thoughtful comments