Why Rehab should be Required
Many American citizens struggle with addiction throughout their lives. According to American Addiction Centers “In 2022 nearly 108,000 people died in the United States from drug-involved overdoses. Additionally, from 1981-2022, unintentional poisoning (from drug overdoses) had become the number one cause of injury-related death in the United States.” With such a big problem in the United States the country should do something to try and solve this problem. A solution to this problem would be requiring addicts to go to a rehab center. The reasons why the United States should require rehab for addicts is because it would help them stabilize their personal lives, help society by being active members, and keep them out of legal trouble.
A reason rehab should be required is to help stabilize peoples lives that have been affected by addiction. Addiction effects citizens daily actives each day where the addiction becomes their focus trying to get their fix. Addiction effects people by having them go to hospitals because they overused their addiction where they needed medical help.
This is where the USA government should step in and require them to go to rehab, so they don’t overdose again. It would lessen the number of overdoses seen throughout the country. It would also affect society too. It would help decreasing the number of people showing up to work not being able to do their job because they are hungover or high out of their mind because of drugs. It would increase the amount of people working and help addicts get help if they get fired for coming to work unable to function.
In my own expertise I have worked with someone that was affected by addiction. Most of the time this person was fine at work but one day when I came in, she was barely able to speak. She got sent home that day but was fine till later in the year she kept coming to work not being able to function. She even told other co-workers that her daughter asked to quit because she didn’t like what it did to her, but she was unable to give up her addiction. She was not rehired the next year because customers complained about her not being able to function and that she showed up several times high.
Another reason why we should send people to rehab is, so they aren’t in prison. In an article by National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics it says, “ 1.16 million American’s are arrested annually for drug related offenses and that 224 thousand of Americans sent to prison annually for drug related crimes.” Instead of sending people to prison where they won’t get help with their addiction they should instead get send to a rehab center. A rehab center can help treat them by seeing a professional instead of being put in prison or sent back home where their addiction would not be corrected. It would also help taxpayers by not having to pay to support them in prison instead that money could be used to help them stabilize their lives at a rehab center. It would also let them still be active members of society instead of living in a jail cell.
The problem with rehab right now stated by American Addiction Centers is “less than 43% of the individuals who enter treatment for drug and alcohol use complete it.” If rehab was required to be finished all the way through it might lower the number of overdoses and deaths seen throughout the country. Another thing rehab would do for the people going through it is it would show them they are not along. It would help them realize that others are going through the same problem and that their people there to help them get better. Another benefit rehab would have for addicts is it would create a routine for them, so they feel more structure and less likely to rely on drugs or alcohol when they feel like they don’t have anything. It would help them get out of their environment that is causing them to use and put them in a place where people are actively trying to better themselves.
An argument against rehab might be that it doesn’t work. With addiction sometimes the person struggling with addiction will relapse. Mentioned in an article The Role of counselling in Drugs and Alcohol Rehabilitation Process “The Recovery Village’, of 2,136 American adults who wanted to stop drinking, only 29% reported a never relapse.” But later in the article it said that relapse is just part of the recovery that it lets the person treating them know that their plan of treatment needs to be adjusted to better help a patient.
With the change of requiring addicts to go to rehab it could affect everyone in the country in a positive way. With this change it could improve the daily lives of everyone and lower the amount of people dying to overdoses, lower the amount of people that are in prison and help change addict’s lives for the better.
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