Finally, Some Good News on the Opiate Problem

good news

These days, good news is hard to come by. News headlines are constantly reading:

“Massive Overdose Outbreak hits suburban town…”

“Opiate Overdoses Are at an All-Time High…”

It seems every day breaks a new, morbid record when it comes to the drug problem in the U.S. Now, we have more drugs than ever saturating not only city streets but also the streets, neighborhoods and schools of suburban America. More and more kids are getting addicted to drugs at earlier ages and the drugs they get hooked on are ordinarily opiates. The opiate problem has been an on-going crisis for years and there never seems to be any good news left in its wake. All we hear about are mass casualties, the wreckage addiction is causing families, new, deadly drugs being created and sold in our towns and how there seems to be no end in sight for this growing nightmare.

That is, until now.

Finally, there’s some good news to be told on the opiate problem. While many state’s opiate crisis is getting worse and worse each day with overdose statistics shooting through the roof, recently, a Massachusetts town is actually reporting a decrease in opiate overdoses! In Worcester, MA some progress has being made. For the first time in many years, the town is reporting a drop in the number of opiate overdoses affecting the community. Worcester enacted the CIT program, which is the Critical Intervention Team and the PAARI program, which stands for “Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative.” These two programs have as their sole purpose to move away from arresting addicts and throwing them in jail to actually helping them and assisting them in getting treatment for their addiction.

Sgt. Kerry Hazelhurst, public information officer for the Worcester Police Department said:

"Something had to be done. You have those factors, and we're out there, but instead of looking at the criminal end of it for many cases, with our program we do with work with others to try to get invention, detox and things like that. We work with professionals to get to the core of the problem, which is addiction. We as a community try to target it and attack it at all levels, unlike the olden days, where the person was just arrested and thrown in jail.”

Finally, a community is waking up and seeing what the real solution to this problem is. Of course, addicts are going to do illegal things to support their habit. They’re going to steal, scam, sell drugs, and get caught with drugs on them. But the answer has never been incarceration. A lot of addicts honestly learn how to be better addicts and better criminals while in jail versus actually getting some type of rehabilitation. A report recently showed that only 11% of inmates who struggle with substance abuse problems receive any type of treatment while incarcerated.

According the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse:

“Of the 2.3 million U.S. inmates, 1.5 million suffer from substance abuse addiction and another 458,000 inmates either had histories of substance abuse, were under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time of committing their crimes; committed their offenses to get money to buy drugs or were incarcerated for an alcohol or drug violation.”

It’s so nice to see good news on the horizon. While this decrease in overdoses is just in one community, in one state, it’s still a start. It’s a start in the right direction to finally handling the opiate epidemic. If more towns in more states follow the model in Worcester, MA and realize the real value of good rehabilitation, we might finally see an end to this major problem we’ve been facing.

For a free addiction consultation, call Narconon Suncoast today at 877-850-7355.


Sources Used:

https://patch.com/massachusetts/worcester/something-had-be-done-worcester-opioid-overdose-numbers-declining

http://www.narconon-suncoast.org/blog/incarceration-or-rehabilitation-whats-the-right-solution.html

AUTHOR

Jason Good

Jason has been working in the field of addiction and recovery for over 11 years. Having been an addict himself he brings real-word experience to the table when helping addicts and their families, while also offering a first-person perspective to the current drug crisis. Jason is passionate about educating the public about what’s currently going on in our society, and thankfully, offers practical solutions. Jason is also the co-host of The Addiction Podcast—Point of No Return. You can follow Jason on Google+, Twitter, or connect with him on LinkedIn.

NARCONON SUNCOAST

DRUG EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION