As I scan another thread about drug abuse, people seem to only have two views about how to address the drug problems we have: more cops/jails or drug legalization.
Like some here, my family has suffered from this plague but, thank God, we have also come out the other side of the tunnel.
My only child was a crystal meth addict for many years. I started having trouble with her when she turned 13. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but rest assured, it was not good. At one point, the authorities found a dead body of an unidentified young woman, and I called the city to see if it might be my child. It wasn’t. The woman from the morgue was very nice, took all my contact information, description/identifying marks of my child so later if she showed up, they would know who it was and contact me. Years went by where I didn’t change my phone number just in case they needed to reach me. At another point, there was a murder/kidnapping we were in court for – all connected to her drug use. It went on for so long. My father told me to write her off, that she was a lost soul with no future but to meet with the lady from the morgue. My work suffered. People thought I was nuts, I’m sure, especially during the murder trial phase. I went to therapy.
So you see, I have a horse in this race.
Our government has been waging “a war on drugs” for far too many years with a very dismal result. Legalization only says “It’s okay to destroy your brain”. People debate and only see two ways to approach the issue, when there is a third way that I see as the only really viable solution.
The third way is to treat these addicts as what they are, people who are ill and not thinking clearly because of what is happening to their bodies because of the drugs affect and hold on them. The war on drugs is essentially a war on sick people. If you can cure the sick, and prevent more incidents of this illness, then the demand for the drugs will diminish and hopefully fall away. Drug cartels exist because there is a demand for what they sell. If the demand goes away, so will they. It’s just the market.
What finally brought my child back to the world of the living was a government program called “Drug Court” and I fully believe she is alive because of it. At 30, she has been free for a couple years now, is in school preparing for a career in the way that most children do in their 20’s. She is holding a 4.0 while working, being a mom to my grandson and a supportive partner to her boyfriend.
The Drug Court program is a long-term, intensive treatment which involves weekly random, testing, in home visits by a caseworker, scheduled group counseling treatments and graduated levels of progress for the ones being treated. It is a long-term intensive treatment, for a long-term intensive problem. It works. Some participants in the program take longer than others, there is backsliding by some, but can we really succeed in this task of making our citizens well by throwing them in jail for what they do when they are not in their right mind? Yes, some victims will need some sort of controlled-in-house treatment place to start, but the goal is to heal, not persecute.
Education in schools is also critical. It has to be made clear that it isn’t cool to get high, and that self-medication is not an answer to teenage angst.
Without healing, these addicts will just die—many of my child’s drug-friends are dead already. Healing treatment is how we can bring our children, friends, husbands, wives back from the brink.
–OJ Visitor
Invited guest poster
I agree with you, and we should get together with Jim Walker he has some good ideas on the issue.
There is another alternative which I have blogged about on the Juice.
In fact we just returned from a volunteer appreciation dinner at the Teen Challenge,TC castle in Riverside where we listened to testimonies from several young men and a woman who were addicts yet, through the TC program, were able to break away from their addictions.
PS: The drug court often recommends the TC program as an option to spending time behind bars.
Sending people to prison for using drugs is a waste of our taxes. Government has a way of making mistakes and failing to see those mistakes. Rehabilitation is the answer.
This year alone there have already been over 5,000 people murdered in the “drug war” just across our southern borders in Mexico.
“At another point, there was a murder/kidnapping we were in court for – all connected to her drug use”.
If drugs were legal and of course accessible, killing each other over it would be silly. History has taught us the demand does exist for mind altering drugs.
OJ, believe me I understand what you are going through and I commend you and your daughter for your efforts.
Welcome OJ Visitor! Thank you for sharing a story that deserves to be heard. May you and your daughter and everyone you love have many blessings in the years to come. May you reap rich rewards for taking the hero’s route and doing the right things by each other. May your words of wisdom help someone who needs them most.
I did a little look up on Google and there are a number of groups that are pushing for vast reforms in how our nation should handle addiction, incarceration, and rehabilitation. Many of them have been calling for interested parties to contact president-elect Obama at change.gov for ideas going forward.
When the Drug Czar is chosen, here’s a list of criteria by just one of the groups, The Drug Alliance:
http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/112408dczar.cfm
The Drug Policy Alliance believes our nation’s next drug czar should be chosen based on the following criteria:
Are they committed to enacting and supporting evidence-based policies? ONDCP should make decisions based on science, not politics or ideology.
Are they committed to reducing the harms associated with both drugs and punitive drug laws? We need a new bottom line for U.S. drug policy.
Do they think drug use should be treated as a health issue not a criminal justice issue? To paraphrase former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, we need a surgeon general not a military general or police officer.
Do they welcome and encourage debate and research? We need a drug czar who is open-minded and willing to consider every alternative.
Are they committed to reducing the number of nonviolent offenders behind bars? Our country’s next drug czar should be fully committed to major sentencing reform.
Who President-elect Obama chooses as his drug czar will affect everyone. DPA is working over-time to influence that decision but we need your help. Please let Obama know that you want him to nominate a drug czar who supports marijuana law reform, syringe availability and treatment-instead-of-incarceration.
Sincerely,
Bill Piper
Director, National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance Network
Red, thanks for the cool link.
OJ, thanks for bringing up this issue, it effects all our lives.
It is utmost poignant to know from the article that a small child is not spared from the wrath of drugs. Narconon Vistabay had undertaken special session to treat the children in a much distinguished approach so they are all ears to make your child come out of this curse.
Treatment & education are certainly the answers to this epedemic. The big problem is funding and the ignorance of our society. Take a look at what happeed this last election. The propistion that would allow non violent drug offendrs treatment vs incarseration was defeated. There was so much money from the corectional (gaurds)union put into the campaign the propisiton didn’t have a chance. Job security. If we were to legalize drugs, place a very high tax on them and then use the funds for treatment, education, prevention, this could be an answer. Legalization definety would stop the smugeling crimes, the need to committ hold ups and burlaries. Ciggaretts are the most addictive substance known. They’re legal, they’re taxed and no one comitts crimes to get them. Theres got to be a better way!