Politicians pass laws dealing with results and effects

FOCUS SHOULD ALWAYS BE ON CAUSES

POLITICAL OBJECTIVES MORE IMPORTANT THAN REAL RESULTS

 

  

 

We see a never ending list of laws and regulations enacted to address some sort of problem in our country. It seems that problems are really only an opportunity to fulfill some political agenda. One good example is the recent allocating of $1.1 Billion in new money to address Opiate addiction. It appears that most of this money is dedicated to rehabilitation. Only a small part to deal with drug interdiction or prevention. Watching the talking points on C-Span and other political commentary, it is obvious that a large government funded industry is being created. There is the talk of the underpaid counselors and not enough treatment centers. If you are able to uncover the results of rehab for opiate addiction, of which there are few available, it seems they are vague and inconsistent at best. In a study in Australia it was found that after 3 years the positive results are less than 15 % for in house treatment, out patient treatment is around 5% and with no treatment near 0 results. The problem with opiate addiction is that most people don't really want to quit. They just are in love with the effects of this drug. Of course there are some who do manage to overcome this addiction, but it is a very low positive result.  Government money would be much better spent by providing a series of video presentations to be shown starting in middle school and continued for all grades. These should be viewed several time a year while in school. Providing the scientific information on what happens to an addicts brain and the consequences of this addiction. These should be shocking hard hitting videos. They should be intended to scare the pants off kids before they experiment with drugs. It should not be exaggerated, but nothing should be held back. Instead the trend looks like it will go something like this, we will be encouraged to accept addiction as a disease, as such rehab will be mandated to be covered by health insurance. We will also see rehab mandated by the courts. So it will be the industry of the future. An industry that will emphasize more money for treatment, very little for prevention. With this approach, it will be a dismal failure. The answer should be 90% prevention and 10% rehab. There will be a lot more money in rehab so you can guess where the money will go. It would be best that addicts would have to apply for rehab and have to convince someone that they are sincere in their hope of quitting.