Physicians | Lawyers Collaborate on National Drug Policy
One can only imagine the powerful force for change that could result when physicians | lawyers collaborate on National Drug Policy for better outcomes. Well, it’s happening.
Physicians | Lawyers Collaborate on National Drug Policy
I recently discovered this website, Physicians and Lawyers for a National Drug Policy. in partnership with The National Judicial College. There is SO MUCH on this site, starting with their landing page title, “Alcohol and Other Drug Problems: A Public Health and Public Safety Priority A Resource Guide for the Justice System on Evidence-Based Approaches.”
The tab selections include: Defining the Problem, Treating the Problem, Co-Occurring Problems, A Growing Problem, Solving the Problem, Terminology, and Resources.
I encourage you to browse through it, and to get you started, I’ve quoted from their introduction below:
Alcohol and other drug problems are concerns of the public health and justice systems, including the criminal, civil, and juvenile branches. The impact of alcohol and other drug problems in the justice system are not limited to cases involving drug-related offenses. Alcohol and other drug problems compound many of the complex issues the justice systems handle every day, including assault, vandalism, child abuse, and divorce.
While most attempts to decrease the number of drug-related offenses have often solely emphasized drug interdiction and incarceration, research has shown that they have had minimal—if any—impact on decreasing substance abuse or the violence associated with criminal activity by individuals with alcohol and other drug problems (Marlowe, 2002).
Effectively addressing problems requires an integrated public health and public safety approach. Treatment decreases drug problems, crime, and recidivism while improving health conditions. Treatment also saves money, and in today’s climate of growing fiscal constraints, it is imperative to re-evaluate spending priorities. Alcohol and other drug problems place a huge burden on our economy—resulting in high health care costs, productivity losses, and other expenses associated with crime and accidents (Belenko et al., 2005). A large portion of this economic burden falls on state justice systems (Join Together, 2006).
Understanding Addiction to Appreciate This Physicians | Lawyers National Drug Policy Effort
To better appreciate the importance of this effort, it is helpful to really understand the disease of addiction (whether it’s to drugs or alcohol). Addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease. The disease does not go away with incarceration. It goes into remission, but if the person does not understand their disease and that the first step to treat it long-term is total abstinence (and why that’s the case and how and what tools can they use to do it), they will likely use at sometime after their release and thus trigger the brain maps surrounding their disease. One of the outcomes of relapse may be engaging in the criminal behaviors that landed them in the judicial system in the first place.
Lisa Frederiksen
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I very much agree with you, Donna. We must provide addiction treatment, otherwise, as you say, it will happen time and again.
The connection between drug use and crime has been overwhelmingly underestimated. Most of the offenders in our jails and prisons commit violent crimes to feed their drug addictions. Because of this public safety is always at risk. Unfortunately incarceration is not enough to stop these individuals from breaking the law time and time again. Not only is this costly in terms of how much money is spent to keep these offenders locked up, but it is also costly due to the fact the problem is reaching epidemic proportions. Ignoring the situation in hopes that it will correct itself is not a valid solution. Society needs to focus some serious funding for drug prevention and addiction treatment to offset the tragedy and dangers to public safety that are the very real and devastating products of drug and alcohol abuse.