Drug Addiction Should Be Treated

¶ … Drug Addiction Should Be Treated as an Illness and Not Through the Criminal Justice System

Addiction by definition is illogical and irrational. "You're ruining your life," friends and family members say to the addict. And sadly, the addict knows this all too well. But through the lies the addict tells him or herself, in the delusion of the disease, the addiction and the addictive lifestyle is sustained. Unlike a crime, which has premeditated, conscious decision-making (as in the case of murder) or poor but rational judgment (as in the case of manslaughter) at its root, alcoholism and drug addiction alters the abuser's ability to make rational decisions. Just as the criminal justice system does not imprison someone who kills a man because he or she is in a state of psychosis and believes the man to be a bear, it is ineffective to criminally penalize addicts when they are operating with an irrational mental framework and cannot distinguish right from wrong.

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, alcoholism and other substance abuse results in a failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, home, recurrent substance use in situations in which it is physically hazardous, legal problems, and social or interpersonal problems caused or exacerbated by the effects of the substance. Trying to punish and deter the user, or even to rehabilitate the user through the tools of the legal system, which involve imprisonment as a form of retribution will do little to inspire reflection or remorse. Imprisonment will not treat the fundamental cause of the asocial behavior, namely the addiction. More than reflection and counseling, and guidance about the wrongness of the crime and training to help the individual reenter society are needed for addicts. Addicts must be treated by people who specifically understand the mental illness of addiction, just like schizophrenics must be treated by psychiatrists, not social workers, to have their illness fully controlled. Untrained individuals may help, but the chemical and genetic side of addiction must be acknowledged and addressed for the addict to make a full recovery.

The purpose of the justice system is to punish. The truth is, most alcoholic and addicts have already been punished, before they ever walk into a courtroom. They have lost loved ones, promising careers, and their physical health to their illness. Could prison take away more of their dignity and act as a deterrent? Incarcerating addicts without specific, substance-abuse therapy designed to treat the physical compulsions and psychological conditions (including but not limited to depression and anxiety) that motivated them to become addicts will do little to ensure that addiction, and the crimes it may have spawned, will cease.