The Other Side of Addiction
By Albert B. Kelly
Its May now, temps are
warming up and winter is fading from view. Code Blue is over- finished for the
season- but words and expressions and images of the homeless remain with me.
Spending time with them this winter, you learn things because people talk the way
people do when the hour is late, sharing the gift gab among themselves on a
quiet winter night, clutching a hot cup of coffee in a warm place and feeling a
little less exposed- perhaps they open up just a little.
Whatever the reason, bits
and pieces of their lives, like snowflakes, would tumble out of them and invariably
the subject of addiction- beating it, feeding it, or ignoring it- was a
recurring theme. That stuck with me as it does even now as I consider how to
help these people; I’m frustrated that there are few options for those
struggling with addiction; alcohol, prescription painkillers, heroin, or crack
cocaine.
To get some perspective,
it helps to look at the numbers. Working with 2012 data; some 23 million people
needed treatment for drug or alcohol addiction nation-wide and roughly 2
million (10%) actually received it. Closer to home in Cumberland County, 2,007
people received treatment for drug or alcohol addiction in 2012 and assuming
the same 10% “treatment versus need”
ratio, it suggests perhaps as many as 20,000 individuals or 13% of our county
population struggling with addiction.
Locally, 394 Bridgeton
residents received treatment for drug or alcohol addiction in 2012 and the same
“treatment versus need” ratio suggests 3,900 people in our community struggling
with addiction. For Millville, the numbers are 545 receiving treatment versus perhaps
5,400 needing it and for Vineland, it was 791 receiving treatment against a
possible 7,900 needing it.
Drug and alcohol addiction
is never pleasant or easy because there are many ways to come at the issue; it
all depends on your point of view. Some people simply dismiss those struggling
with addiction as “junkies”; assuming they suffer from a weak will and perverse
appetites. It’s easy to do, but it’s wrong and it’s unproductive.
I say that, because
science and medicine suggest that addiction is its own disease. One may not get
it in the same way one gets infected with the plague, but there it is,
destroying lives. Addiction may run over multiple generations and who can say this
doesn’t impact physiology? It may come after an operation or the onset of
chronic pain when someone must take addictive medicines for an extended period.
It may come because life is painful and some people just tend to self-medicate.
But whether you’re willing
to give the person grappling with addiction the benefit of some kind of doubt
or you choose to stand in harsh judgment of them; the fact remains that it’s
taking an enormous toll on our communities.
Upwards of 73% of those
locked up in our jails and prisons are there on some drug-related charge. We’re
good at punishment, but really bad at treatment. Some might sniff that prison
is what they deserve, but 40 years of the “War on Drugs” hasn’t worked. For
those who seek treatment, they are repeatedly denied admission to treatment
facilities because insurance won’t cover the cost. Hospitals won’t admit
someone trying to detox from opioids because they say it’s not
life-threatening. Tell that to the guy in withdrawal.
For those who have
insurance, they might get into a 30 day treatment program, but they’re often
cut loose after 10-15 days; which is when insurance stops paying. If you pay
“out-of-pocket”, the cost can range from $3,500 to $30,000 for a 30-day program;
who can afford that? Nationally, there are maybe 1,200 residential treatment
programs and 9,600 outpatient programs; with the rest being methadone clinics.
My point is that no matter
how you view addiction, we need to deal with it in a different way; requiring
insurance companies to set aside a little of their quarterly earnings and pay
for truly effective treatment programs. Maybe we can thin the prison population
and shift those dollars to more treatment programs.
Whatever we do, I still
can’t help but think about the homeless I saw during Code Blue; most of them
decimated by drug and alcohol addiction, some of whom have cycled through a few
days of “rehab”, all of whom seemingly resigned to the fact that there’s no way
out…just the next hit to let them forget for a few minutes. There’s just got to
be a better way.