Rehabilitation as a Solution for Drug Addiction in America

There was a time in our nation’s history when smoking was cool, not anymore. With medical awareness still on the rise the average american is educated medically, and lawfully on drug use. Despite this drug abuse is continuing to rise and the U.S. is scrambling for a solution. For a long time our nation has believed that harsher drug laws and stricter sentencing keeps drug usage down, but it simply doesn't work. Despite the war on drugs, drug usage continues to increase. It's time for the U.S. to modernize and see the drug crisis from a new perspective. By enforcing government run rehabilitation centers, instead of jails, for people who get caught for drugs, drug usage will decrease.

Before getting into a solution for the problem, a more in depth look is needed to fully understand why this problem is so prevalent in America. Addiction is perceived by many today as a flaw in someone's character, when it instead represents the happiness and fulfillment of that person's life. Bruce Alexander’s “Rat Park” is an experiment in which the well known “Rat Addiction” test is tested. In the normal experiment a rat is placed in a cage with two types of water, one with cocaine mixed in, and one without. Almost every time the rat chooses the cocaine water over the regular and eventually overdoses. Bruce recreated this experiment but instead of keeping the rat in a jail-like cell he made the cell into somewhat of a “rat heaven” this cage had endless companions, food, and activities. The cage also had the cocaine and the normal water available, surprisingly however the rats almost never chose the cocaine water, and never overdosed. Bruce says, “In virtually every experiment the rats in solitary confinement consumed more drug solution, and not just a little more. A lot more”. This quote shows how solitary is not an effective form of treatment for addiction, but a good environment and support is. This shows how jails are ineffective in treating drug abuse because after release the drug addiction wont stop, in fact it shows the opposite, someone secluded is more likely to become addicted. A quote from the Federal Bureau of Prisons statistics supports this “ An estimated 68% of released prisoners were arrested within 3 years, 79% within 6 years, and 83% within 9 years.”. With prison re-entry rates this high for drug offenders, it is obvious that the prison sentencing the U.S. has in place now is not effective in reducing and preventing drug use. It shows that addiction is not solvable with prison sentences, and that a new approach is needed.

To make sure that the rehabilitation centers are effective, and successful in their goal, they will need to be run and maintained properly. A core principle of these centers to ensure success, each person will have their own specialized worker who look at patients individually and access what to do based on that client. Alltyr, a new similar clinic based out of Los Angeles with an individual addiction approach has reported numbers of “40-50 percent of clients fully recover” after the 90 day treatment. To insure that these counselors hired by the government a test to be able to acquire a license to be able to perform for these centers would be created and the compensation of counselors would be based off of the success of their clients. To test this a state such as New Mexico, one of the top ten most drug abused states in the U.S., with the Federal Bureau of Prisons estimating that over “50%” incarcerated are nonviolent drug offenders will have this program implemented for a 3-5 year period. After this the rate of success will determine if other states start to implement this, or if changes specific to each state are needed for future centers.

If the U.S. implemented government run rehabilitation centers for non-violent drug offenders, not only would drug abuse decrease, it would be more cost effective than putting them in jail. With prisons being the fullest that they have ever been in U.S. history, Americans are spending a fortune on prison inmates.The Vera Institute of Justice estimates that each prison inmate costs an average of “30,000 to 60,000” dollars a year, and with 45.6% of all U.S. prison inmates being nonviolent drug offenders the U.S. is spending billions a year, without results. However with properly run rehabilitation centers, addictioncenter.com estimates that each occupant would only cost “3,000-6,000” dollars for a 90 day in depth rehabilitation program. Not only will these centers reduce drug abuse tremendously but, with this massive reduction on the amount spent on drug offenders the U.S. would actually save money, and keep millions from entering the correctional system.

Although this solution is viable and will work, some opponents to this argument may say that people could take advantage of these centers. They will say that these centers will not be effective in the treatment and that harsher laws are needed to prevent drug use. For example in Reed, Anika’s article “drug abuse” she claims that “ It is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily proviable offense”(para 8). Although it is true that some types of drug usage can successfully be stopped with harsher laws and strict sentencing, this argument is invalid because it has been proven in countries such as Portugal, according to the Washington Post, “The prevalence of past-year and past-month drug use among young adults has fallen since 2001”. It can be shown that more lenient sentencing and bringing the war to addiction and not drugs is very effective. Therefore the most effective solution for America's drug epidemic is government run rehabilitation centers replacing prison.

WIth government run rehabilitation centers replacing jail time for nonviolent drug offenders, drug usage in America will significantly decrease. Not only will these rehabilitation centers keep people off of drugs and out of a jail cell, it will cost America a fortune less, and it will fight the main problem, addiction. America needs to modernize their approach and outlook on the drug problem. By doing this the U.S. will set the bar high for other countries to follow, so we can advance, not only as a country, but as a species.