Drug addiction doesn’t work that way. Imagine if the only way to get housing was to quit smoking cold turkey. Very, very few people will succeed. Some of the homeless have tried to kick their habit and failed, so very few people would want to fail abstinence and go back on the streets.
Rehab is rarely successful, especially religious institutions, but that is no excuse for not trying to fix a very clear problem with ones self. Drug addictions work exactly like that. Either you want to change and you’re trying, or you don’t and you’re not.
I was curious what the difference was so I went searching for a study like this one and saw on Table 2 that voluntarily admitted treated individuals at the 6 month follow-up survey were only 50% abstinent for the prior 30 days compared to 24% of compulsorily admitted. However, it is true that the overdose rate for VA was much lower than CA’s 22%.
I’m not sure courts anywhere in the USA can force rehab for more than a year, some states do about 30-50 days. Even then, usually only for repeat offenders. With that in mind the number of people who complete treatment for compulsory admission is probably much much lower than for VA, but I didn’t bring stats to back that claim up.
I do also know for a fact, though, that the 2 year rate is even worse than those numbers, so rehab is more often unsuccessful regardless.
Drug addiction doesn’t work that way. Imagine if the only way to get housing was to quit smoking cold turkey. Very, very few people will succeed. Some of the homeless have tried to kick their habit and failed, so very few people would want to fail abstinence and go back on the streets.
Please don’t create straw man arguments.
I never said cold turkey or abstinence. I said “no drug use in the free apartment.”
Rehab is rarely successful, especially religious institutions, but that is no excuse for not trying to fix a very clear problem with ones self. Drug addictions work exactly like that. Either you want to change and you’re trying, or you don’t and you’re not.
Forced rehab is rarely successful. Voluntary rehab at the patient’s request is quite often successful.
I was curious what the difference was so I went searching for a study like this one and saw on Table 2 that voluntarily admitted treated individuals at the 6 month follow-up survey were only 50% abstinent for the prior 30 days compared to 24% of compulsorily admitted. However, it is true that the overdose rate for VA was much lower than CA’s 22%.
I’m not sure courts anywhere in the USA can force rehab for more than a year, some states do about 30-50 days. Even then, usually only for repeat offenders. With that in mind the number of people who complete treatment for compulsory admission is probably much much lower than for VA, but I didn’t bring stats to back that claim up.
I do also know for a fact, though, that the 2 year rate is even worse than those numbers, so rehab is more often unsuccessful regardless.