Drug Addiction Treatment Act: A Drug Addiction Treatment Center Can Keep Your Loved One Out of Prison

If you’re worried about someone you know who’s taking drugs getting into criminal activity, you have every reason to be. The number of people in prison for drug-related offenses highlights just how many people are actually taking drugs and getting involved in crime – often simply to support their own habit. The prison population is such a heavy financial burden, the laws are starting to loosen up. And, thanks to drug courts, some offenders can now go into a drug addiction treatment center instead of prison.

Lightening up on the laws is definitely called for. A recent article in the magazine Mother Jones chronicled some of the legal changes in the last 20 years and the effect they’ve had on the prison population.

In 1986, for example, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act made the sentence for selling or possessing crack cocaine 100 times stricter than for powdered cocaine. The prison population doubled over the next ten years.

Two years later, the Omnibus Anti-Drug Abuse Act mandated that anyone even loosely connected with the sale or possession of certain quantities of crack would also get a five-year sentence. In other words, if you lived with someone who had five grams of crack on the premises, even if it had nothing to do with you, you could go to prison for five years. In the six years following that law, the number of people in prison for drug offenses quadrupled. And offenders still didn’t have the option of a drug addiction treatment center. That didn’t start for another ten or twelve years.

In 1994, the three-strikes law was enacted in California making the sentence for a third felony conviction 25 years to life. According to Mother Jones, one such offender was a homeless man who tried to take food from a church. Within a year or so, the three-strikes law was in 24 states.

These laws, and there are many more, are a large part of the reason one in ten Americans is now in prison.

How many of those people would be better off in a drug addiction treatment center? And if these are just the people who got caught, how many more people are out there who also need a drug addiction treatment center and are likely to wind up in prison instead?

Some prisoners are now being released early. Some are getting the rehab treatment they need. So things are changing. But if changes in drug laws can create this kind of effect, it’s clear that we need to spend a lot more money on drug addiction treatment centers if we want to spend less on prisons, the justice system and law enforcement.

Investing in high quality, successful drug addiction treatment centers could have a huge impact on our faltering economy. It would also reduce drug addiction and crime – and we spend billions on that in addition to the legal and prison system costs – and we’d save a lot of lives in the process instead of taking drug addicts and turning them into drug addicts who are also hardened criminals.

Can someone you know who’s taking drugs become a criminal? Absolutely. Get them into a drug addiction treatment center before that happens. They need drug rehab, not prison.

Drug Abuse, Mental Illness And Co-Occurring Disorders Video – Drug Use and Mental Health; Target Audience Statement: Primary target audiences for this program will include law enforcement officials, drug prevention specialists, Drug-Free Communities Act grantees, administrators, school drug counselors, treatment providers, drug court members, policy makers, business leaders, coalition volunteers, drug demand reduction coordinators, criminal justice professionals, members of the religious community and other community partners who may be interested. This program is also suitable for Public Access television distribution. Program Summary And Objectives: “Millions of American today receive health care for mental or substance-use problems and illnesses. These conditions are the leading cause of combined disability and death of women and the second highest of men.” “Improving the Quality of health Care for Mental and Substance-Use Conditions,” Institute of Medicine Report, November 1, 2005; Studies are showing an alarming trend, incidents of mental illness related to drug use are on the rise. It’s unclear what came first, did a predisposition to mental illness lead to drug use, or is it the other way around? No matter what, co-occurring disorders are a problem. Especially in the wake of this year’s hurricanes and other disasters, mental health and substance abuse professionals need to be poised to provide additional care for those suffering serious mental trauma and who may turn to alcohol and drugs as a result. During this hour-long …

From Twitter:

RT @Med_Entertain: @WatershedCares are specialists in #drug addiction & #Alcohol treatment and many more. Take a look if you need help act now! RT #Health – by WatershedCares (The Watershed)

From Twitter:

@WatershedCares are specialists in #drug addiction & #Alcohol treatment and many more. Take a look if you need help act now! RT #Health – by Med_Entertain (MedicalEntertainment)