Why are precious Medicaid dollars going to substance abuse treatment?

[T-310]

Originally Posted by banjomike

What's the opioid crisis anything BUT a serious physical health issue?

What is left? The War On Drugs is a failure. Just Say No is a failure. Incarceration is a failure. Religion is a failure. Social approbation is a failure.

Addicts cost us all a lot of money, and addiction costs them the most of all. The only approach so far that has had some success in cleaning an addict up for life has been a combination of medical and psychological therapy, and that's not cheap, but it's a lot cheaper in the long run than all the failures have cost us.

So you tell me. What do you want to do with the problem of addiction?

Addiction is only voluntary the first time a person tries the drug. After that, the drug is a physical need as strong as hunger, and hunger is not voluntary. The only thing voluntary in addiction is the will to overcome the addiction, and by itself, is most often not enough to do it.

Addiction brings on cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and actually kills some addicts who are trying to straighten up. Worse, addiction brings some of those diseases to the families of addicts. And a child of an addict can become one too.

If you can figure out some free way to remove this plague from our nation, please inform me. I'll be all for it if it works. But cutting off the money will only put more of them on the streets. And then, they'll all cost us when they are jailed.

Idiots that voluntarily swallow, smoke or otherwise inject opioids of their own free will can unhook themselves.

I refuse to pay for their stupid personal choices in life.

[Seacove]

So take the coverage away from Appalachia and the Rust Belt after Trump "declared it an opioid emergency"?

[fibonacci]

Originally Posted by texan2yankee

I'm probably in the minority, but I think some people are genetically addicts.

Drugs should be legalized. Opioids should be available to pain sufferers who need them and not restricted because some abuse this pain drug. Addicts should be allowed to live as they want. Unless or until an addict wants rehab. Society shouldn't be paternal and presume they do. Leave them alone unless they break the law.

You aren't in the minority at all. They've been doing addiction studies for years - and yes, some people are simply 'wired' differently without having to go into too much scientific detail. It's the reason why some people can not control gambling, yet other people get nothing out of it. Gambling addictions can even be treated pharmacologically with medicines - there's absolutely a physiological difference in brains and the biochemistry of addiction.

It's really difficult explaining to and getting the general public to simply accept that many forms of addiction are a disease that we need to proactively treat instead of locking people up, spending billions on the war on drugs, and ruining thousands of families for life. We can continue to blame 'personal choice' all we want, but the science completely points to the other direction that there are ways we should be treating addictions. Blaming personal choice has done nothing but make the problem worse and cost us millions of dollars more dealing with the problems with addiction rather than being more progressive and coming up with prevention and rehabilitation options.

[rbohm]

Originally Posted by pennyone

I would commit them into a government funded force detox program and they stay in it until they are well. No consent needed. If you’re a drug addict, you will be forced to get clean.

you cant force someone to get clean and stay clean. they have to want to get there. otherwise your efforts are all for naught.