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The following was sent in by one of our readers, written in response to Save Money by Decriminalizing Drugs

I am excited about the move forward to recognizing the fact that most addicts, once the addiction is removed would not be in the “system”. So it makes sense to be moving to working on getting them HELP rather than putting them in prison. A majority of the people sitting in jails now could be helped. The idea of drug court is a real win/win situation. The addict is getting the help they need and the community is gaining a productive, participating member. States were thinking that big sentences were the answer. What exactly does that accomplish? We need to do something because the current system IS NOT WORKING as evidenced by the fact that jails are full to overflowing and the majority of them are from drug offenses.

We need to start recognizing and educating our communities about addiction, what it REALLY takes to get out of it and that most of the programs that are in place will need to be advanced to accomodate the new drugs that are being used. The current programs are lacking in substance and their length of treatment time. When 90% of all the people who use Methamphetamine for the 1st time become addicted, we need to do something different. Research shows that it takes someone addicted to meth approximatley 24 months before the control centers in their brains are back to “normal”. This means that 30 and 60 day programs, while they are better than nothing are not really touching the problem. I have, unfortunately, seen this first hand with a family member and I can tell you that as much as he wanted to quit, the 30 and 60 day programs just didn’t give him all that he needed to make that happen. They are kind of left hanging. They walk out of the program saying O.K. where do I go from here and unless they have a great deal of support (which most don’t), they will have difficulty making it stick. It isn’t just a matter of saying I’m done. While that is extremely important, it is much more than that when it comes to meth. The “Just Say No” thinking is great BEFORE you get started using. Once you have left the Use and moved to the Abuse and then on to Addiction, the “just say no” is lost. With Meth 90% of the people who have used it once go from USE and go directly through the ABUSE stage into ADDICTION. we need a better answer.

I hope that we all start to see how much better things can be when we work to assist those addicted to these substances get help, bring their families back together and allow them to move forward in their lives clean and healthy. When we begin to understand that it does get to a point of them NOT being in control, then we can begin to see how very critical getting that assistance to them is. There will be some who will not stop no matter what, but the majority are often crying out for help at the same time they are trying to find their next hit. It doesn’t make logical sense and we have to stop putting that logic into it and just understand what is.

This is a great first step. The next one would be to get more Therapeutic Communities for Rehabilitation. They would be cheaper than jails and accomplish a whole lot more. These are set up to get a person really ready to face the world outside of addiction. The participants must work to stay in the program as that is how they pay to go. They are taught marketable skills and given opportunities to get set up to actually be able to function in the communities they are from. They receive counseling, behavior modification, group sessions, AA/NA meetings and other activities that put them in a good position to live thier lives without drugs. To be able to move forward and be the person they were truly meant to be.

-Tammy Forbes-

Tags: personal stories, readers responses //