According to a recent news article on a site that features airing the dirty laundry of celebrities – did the people who write that stuff grow up knowing that was their true mission in life, something that would give them a sense of purpose? –  Mackenzie Phillips is half-way through her certification program as a drug counselor. I don’t know how it will interact with an actual drug rehab program, but her counseling will apparently be turned into a TV show called No Relapse. The article called the idea of her counseling others on drugs absurd. In fact, she may be extremely successful. Here’s why.

Imagine you are a boat builder and need help figuring out a problem. Would help from an accountant, for example, who’s only boat experience has been going on a cruise really help you? Would anything they have to say be credible? Chances are high that it would be a complete waste of time.

In fact, many of the really good drug counselors have had a drug problem themselves. They understand what the addict is going through every step of the way. They know how it feels to be on drugs, they know how it feels to be addicted, they know how it feels to try and get off them.

They know about the physical pain, the emotional pain, about the experiences and feelings that lead a person to take drugs in the first place, and they know about trying to stay off them once they’re through the drug rehab program and back out in their usual environment.

Assuming that the former addict has also been trained as a counselor, there’s a good chance you won’t find anyone better to help you or someone you care about get off drugs.

Parents all over the world have tried to get their kids to stop drinking or taking drugs – as have wives with their husbands, sisters with their brothers, and vice versa in both cases, and even kids with their parents.

They are rarely successful. They usually don’t know the first thing about what the addict is going through, so their pleas, reasoning and other attempts fail.

I wish Mackenzie Phillips all the success in the world. And if you have a problem with drugs in your family, don’t be put off by the idea that a former addict may be the person able to get your family member off drugs. In fact, a former addict is usually exactly what an addict needs – which is why some of the most successful drug rehab facilities hire them.

Just as the accountant wasn’t able to advise the boat builder, airing celebrity dirty laundry for a living actually doesn’t qualify you as a drug rehab expert.

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If you know someone who is on heroin, methadone, other opiates – even prescription painkillers – you need to know this.

A recent article regarding heroin addicts in the UK says the government – i.e. the taxpayers – is spending 3.6 billion pounds (that’s nearly $6 billion dollars) to keep heroin addicts addicted to methadone. At the same time, the number of those addicts actually being referred to a drug rehab program where they can become totally free of drugs has dropped dramatically.

There is somewhere between 150,000 and 320,000 heroin/methadone/opiate addicts on the UK’s drug addiction sponsorship programs: here’s an example of what the British taxpayers are financing:

$1.2 million a year on methadone.

$2.8 billion a year on welfare payments

$1.9 billion a year on looking after the children of drug addicts

Wow.

The original intention of the methadone program – except for a very few addicts – was to use the drug to help wean them off heroin; to prevent them from having to go through the horrible withdrawal side effects that so often stops heroin addicts from kicking the habit.

Methadone is not a solution. It’s much, much more difficult to get someone off methadone than heroin. Many facilities in the U.S. won’t even accept methadone addicts in their drug rehab program. So methadone doesn’t free the person of anything – it imprisons them.

So, what about real drug rehab for these addicts? Of these 150,000 or 320,000 people (whatever the real number is) only 3,914 per year are referred for actual drug rehab. In fact, there are only 1,872 ‘affordable’ – which is being defined at about $1000 a week – beds in drug rehab facilities in the entire country.

A real lose/lose situation. Everybody loses – the addicts, the government, the families of addicts, the British taxpayer. Everyone in the country is paying to keep addicts addicted.

The very disturbing thing about this is that there is a similar trend in the U.S. Britain was one of the first countries to offer methadone as a solution. Now, decades later, it’s glaringly obvious that the great methadone experiment has failed. Let’s hope the U.S. is paying attention and learns from Britain’s mistakes.

If you know of someone who is addicted to heroin – or other opiates, which methadone is also used for – methadone is not the answer;  methadone is not drug rehab, it is continued drug addiction.

When someone you care about is addicted to heroin or other opiates, it’s tempting to do something to ‘quiet’ things down. Methadone addicts who are getting their drugs inexpensively, or, sometimes, free, often stop causing trouble. Like ‘psychiatric’ patients who are given drugs to calm them down – often to the point where they’re just sitting in a chair staring at whatever’s in front of them. Sure, with the right drug, no one causes trouble.

But is that really all you want? Wouldn’t you prefer to get them help so they can end their dependency on drugs and get back to leading a normal, productive life?

Only a good drug rehab program can do that. And by ‘good’, I don’t mean one of those 30-day things that get the person off drugs temporarily but, because they don’t thoroughly deal with why they got on drugs in the first place or how they’re going to stay off them when they get back into their regular environment, rarely gets permanent results. A good drug rehab program includes those steps. And, for the vast majority of addicts, it’s the only thing that works.

Don’t settle for less. Get your life back.

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Whitney Houston has certainly had her problems with drugs. She started her career with some incredible hits, and she was very young. Her first album was released when she was barely into her 20s. Since then, she’s won grammys, emmys – hundreds of music awards, more than any other female artist – but has had a constant battle with drugs almost since she started. Her problem? She hasn’t been choosing the right drug rehab program.

Whitney has been in drug rehab several times. Eventually, the problem got so bad her brilliant career was in the toilet. Fortunately, she’s extremely talented and was able to make a few comebacks – the latest was in 2009. But, once again, she’s in trouble – she just got out of yet another drug rehab program, a 30-day program which she says was just not enough.

She is so right. Short term drug rehab just doesn’t make it. Maybe if you have been taking drugs for a month – and aren’t totally into it, and are not in an environment or emotional condition where they will be constantly temped – 30 days might be enough. But anyone who has something serious going on needs more time.

A good drug rehab program gets the person off the drugs – which can take a while, and then gets into getting the person healthy again. Then, and without this step there’s little chance of the person staying off drugs, they get into why the person started with drugs in the first place and address that. Then, and this is the second thing that is vital for success, they look at the person’s environment, what they run into that makes them get back into drugs, and address those problems – helps them find solutions in advance.

Whitney Houston needs to really revamp her life so she understands why she is in a constant state of emotional upheaval.

A good drug rehab program will do that for her. I hope she finds it.

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