Addiction Treatment: The Effective Alternative to Incarceration

A 1996 study revealed that the US economy suffered over twenty-five billion dollars in lost productivity do to heroin addiction that year alone. Fifteen years later, with the explosion in use of designer and other addictive drugs, the annual cost may be twice that. This expense, when added to the cost of incarceration, as well as rehabilitation, yields a virtually inestimable burden on society. Jerry D. lived on the streets of Houston for twelve years. "My daddy was a heroin addict. So was Momma. Momma hung out in the bedroom while daddy scored. When he came home, he gave her her share, then settled into his easy chair for his fix. He called it "providing" for his family, but he was lazy; he taught me how to shoot him up when I was ten. I just did the same to myself the next year. Then, I was off and runnin'." Stories like Jerry's abound in drug rehab Texas. Much the same can be said of drug rehab Connecticut. Michele now lives just outside New Haven. "It was just what we did: fix. Nobody thought anything about it. We knew what we needed to score, so we stole the latest fashion stuff the college kids wear from the mall and sold it for cash. Those college kids loved us." A Brooklyn native, Michele did two stints in treatment, the latest making her a veteran of drug rehab New York, as well. Michele thoughtfully adds, "I don't know what my six years of using cost, really, except that it's enough that I'll never be able to repay it." Warehousing of addicts in American prisons is pandemic. Jerry and Michele's stories represent victories for treatment, the model to be followed as an alternate remedy to not only the drug addiction cost to merchants, families and employers, but the expense of addiction for society at large in the form of taxes to house, feed and clothe addicts, as well. Thus undermining the mistaken assumption that punishment is the key. A 1997 University of Pennsylvania Treatment Research Institute survey of 14,285 inmates housed in 275 state prisons estimates that one third of all male and over one half of all female inmates needed, but didn't receive, residential drug dependency treatment. The cost of denying the need for addiction treatment while housing these inmates will billions more as the years pass. Twelve Palms Recovery Center, experts in private, compassionate addiction treatment, focuses their efforts on the individual. They also emphasize the importance of the 12-step model by not only encouraging AA attendance, but hosting AA meetings, as well. For additional information call 866-331-6779 any time, 24 hours a day rnFor More Details please Visit Us at: http://www.12palmsrecoverycenter.com