I’m still having trouble getting my head around how California can cut drug court/treatment programs to save money. California’s drug problems are serious enough to warrant putting more money into treatment, not less. It could actually make them money.

One study (Urban Institute and Caliber Associates) showed that, nationwide, 75% of drug court graduates have not been arrested again in the two years following graduation. Bearing in mind that most drug court rehab programs are still following up with the person at that time, you can pretty much bet that these people are not back on drugs either.

That might not sound like a big deal until you consider what usually happens for drug -related offenses: 95% return to drug abuse after release from prison, and 60 – 80% commit a new crime after release.

So, 75% doing well after two years is a significant change.

You can also see the results in other ways. New York state, for example, was able to close down four prisons because of offering drug rehab through drug courts, and has saved $250 million.

So, why is shutting down such a successful program considered a way of saving money for California?

This simply seems like bad money management to me. What is going on with California? Has it reached the stage of running so close to the wire that they actually lose money every week, despite the fact that there’s money coming in? Like a person who has a paycheck coming on Friday, but by Tuesday they’re already broke. So, they borrow $200 on Tuesday, then on Friday pay back the $200 plus $40 interest. At the end of the year have taken home about $2000 less. Never get ahead, never able to invest in what they would need to do to change their situation.

Drug abuse costs the U.S. billions of dollars every year – one way or another. If we want to have billions more to spend, we need to put more pressure on public officials to spend money on things like drug rehab that will, in the end, not only save billions, but save lives, lower the crime rate and turn current drug addicts and criminals into contributing members of society.

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Since 1990, the prison population in California has increased by nearly 80%, and the prisons are operating at nearly double their capacity. The cost of housing a prisoner is now $46,000 a year. One of the programs that can help the situation is getting first time offenders and non-violent offenders – with drug-related offenses – through drug rehab rather than sticking them in prison.

A drug rehab program – even the best of them, the kind that not only gets the person off drugs but actually rehabilitates them so they can stop being drug addicts, stop being criminals, and integrate back into society and a normal, productive life – costs about ½ the cost of housing a prisoner. And many of the prisoners are going to be doing more than a year in prison, which adds to the costs, will not be rehabilitated at all by the experience, and will most likely end up back in prison.

A vicious cycle.

But California’s $12B in debt now, and to offset some of that debt, the drug treatment programs may be coming to an end.

The California drug rehab program has been around for about 10 years and, at times, has had as many as 36,000 participants in a year. That’s a savings of about $250M per year (assuming those 36,000 prisoners would only stay in prison for 1 year) or $2.5B approximately.

Of course, that’s also not taking recidivism into account – i.e. how many of those offenders, had they not gone to rehab, would end up back in prison and costing the state (read ‘taxpayers’) even more? Not to mention the increase in crime, the health care costs of overdosing and sick drug addicts in the ER, and so on. Very expensive in more ways than one.

How can it possibly make sense to save money in California by cutting drug rehab?  The same people who are committing these crimes are going to go to prison instead.

Does anyone have a clue how this is justified fiscally?

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Here’s the first paragraph of a recent news story from the UK: “The Government has announced its new drug strategy with an uncompromising drive to crack down on those involved in the drugs trade combined with revolutionising treatment services to offer recovery as a route out of dependency. “

Wow. A revolutionary treatment – actually getting the person through a drug rehab program that makes an addict no longer an addict, and no longer wanting to take drugs. A new life.

It’s hard not to be flippant about that. It is so obviously the only real solution.

But in the UK, and in other countries, getting people to actually be able to stop taking drugs and not want to take them is a concept that was abandoned quite some time ago. Instead, they try to reduce the harm caused by the drugs.

There are several programs designed for harm reduction.

Methadone treatment. Methadone was originally intended, for most people, for short-term use to get someone through heroin withdrawal so they can get through a drug rehab program. Instead, people are parked on methadone for years and without any actual rehab at all. The rationale? It’s better than heroin: no needles, no crime (the methadone is supplied at nominal cost through the government), and they can often work and carry on a more or less normal life – as long as they keep taking this dangerous, highly addictive drug.

Other programs include needle exchanges, where the addict can come to a needle exchange site, get a clean needle instead of using one that’s been used by someone else and may be infected with HIV or other diseases. They can also shoot up at those sites, with personnel there to take care of them if they overdose.

Both reduce harm, true, but neither gets the person off drugs.

James Brokenshire, England’s Minister for Crime Prevention is determined to make changes. “There are no quick fixes, what we want to achieve is a generational shift, to get people to take responsibility for their actions and free themselves from the vicious cycle of drug and alcohol dependency.

“Today’s message is clear. Simply focusing on reducing the harms cause by illicit drug use is no longer enough. We must focus on recovery as the most effective route out of dependency.

“We will also tighten the net on unscrupulous drug dealers, introduce temporary banning orders to allow us to take immediate action against new ‘legal highs’, protect vulnerable young people by preventing them from falling into a cycle of dependency, and encourage record numbers of drug users into treatment.”

Hallelujah! More power to you!

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Just about anytime I, or other bloggers, write about the dangers of marijuana, tons of readers make comments about how ridiculous a concept that is – that they’ve been smoking grass, along with their friends, for 40 years or whatever and have never gotten into any other drugs. They also say they can stop anytime, do not need drug rehab, and it causes no problems for them in life.

Yet new data released in Switzerland showed that 25% of the people in drug rehab in that country are there because of marijuana. The same number is there for heroin. That doesn’t sound like some harmless drug to me.

Perhaps the difference here, between the people who write to us protesting the innocence of weed, is that the people who get themselves into drug rehab realize it actually is effecting their lives.

The last person I met personally who told me he’s been smoking marijuana for decades and that it causes no problems in his life didn’t seem to have a great life. He was about 55 years old, roughly 100 pounds overweight, had a long, gray ponytail and beard, lived alone (except for several very large birds who had been his sole companions for years), and worked behind the counter in a pet store.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, and he seems very content. Blissful, even.

But I can’t help thinking there was a time he wanted more out of life, and can’t imagine him in his younger years describing his current life as what he wanted.

That’s probably the biggest problem with marijuana – your dreams can go up in smoke, and you don’t even really notice. You’re disassociated from it all and your bliss is supplied by the joint you lift to your lips again and again as life slips through your fingers.

Are you sure you don’t want to do something about that?

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