Jailing someone costs $50 grand a year. Treatment is much cheaper. From an economic standpoint, keeping 1% of our population in jail makes no sense.

Addiction is an illness, best treated by doctors, not jailers.

I’m afraid that we are becoming soft and the country is going to hell.

Whatever happened to the principle of deterrence where we apply overwhelming punitive consequences to bad behavior?

And personal responsibility… When will the light bulb come on, when people look in the mirror and realize “what the fvck! Look at me, I’m a mess; by the grace of God, I’m going to pull myself up by the bootstraps!”

It’s not that hard. Just say no!

[quote=spdrun]We became smarter and realized that the cost/benefit ratio stunk.[/quote]

Really? That’s soft and wimpy!

We are not giving good policy enough time. We are folding right before the enemy.

We double down, ratchet it up, turn the screws on the addicts and criminals until we win and rid our land of the scourge of humanity that is drug abuse.

Umm, “opioid addiction” has many faces … of ALL colors and races and is a HUGE problem in the US. I have known SEVERAL people who were prescribed Percocet (and its various close cousins) for injuries they sustained at one time and 1-8 years (and 1-3 surgeries later) are still taking it daily, sometimes up to 10 caplets per day. I did feel sorry for these people (a couple of them were very close friends at one time) but I can personally attest here that you can’t talk sense into these people cuz they’re addicted. This addiction manifests many varied and detrimental side effects on one’s life. I just ended up feeling sorry for them and had to distance myself.

Pain doctors are simply (legal) delivery systems of narcotics from Big Pharma. They don’t care if their patients become addicted. To them, addiction is the lesser of two evils and is the price they must pay for being “pain-free” (or nearly so) and so that doctor was considered “successful” in treating them.

People, it is incredibly easy to start taking a (legal) opioid for pain, obtain your first “refill” and quickly become addicted. It’s a very slippery slope :=0

We all need to have compassion for this group but in the same vein, these people need to be convinced to sign up for a detox program ASAP if they’re ever going to get their lives back (and not pose a danger to themselves or others, such as while driving). There are various centers across the nation who specialize in this niche, but it takes a minimum of 28 days in residence and costs $7-$10K. It’s worth it, even if one has to take a medical leave of absence from work.

[quote=spdrun]$7-10k is CHEAP as compared to jailing someone. Addiction treatment should be provided for free, no questions asked, by the gov’t — the return on that would be huge.[/quote]spd, the average rehab period for opioid addiction is about 75-90 days but selected patients can get released in a minimum of 28 days (4 weeks). I believe medical insurance and healthplans in the US are now mandated to cover a portion of it, depending on the patient’s plan (bronze, silver, gold or platinum).

Did u catch the opioid constipation medication commercial on the superbowl? Hilarious! How many constipated dope fiends are there in the nation that this commercial pays off???!!!

Cray cray

Gotta use my health insurance to go to rehab to get off subscription addiction that my health insurance funds. Can I pass on that and just get a less expensive education for my kid?