This morning, I re-watched a Democracy Now segment featuring Canadian doctor and addiction specialist Gabor Mate. In the segment, Amy Goodman asked Dr. Mate about his thoughts on the use of the criminal justice system to address drug addiction. He responded:
[R]esearch clearly shows that the biggest driver of addictive relapse and addictive behavior is actually stress… stress drives addiction. Now imagine a situation where we’re trying to figure out how to try to help addicts. Would we come up with a system that stresses them to the max? Who would design a system that ostracizes, marginalizes, impoverishes and ensures the disease of the addict, and hope, through that system, to rehabilitate large numbers? It can’t be done. In other words, the so-called “war on drugs,” which, as the new drug czar points out, is a war on people, actually entrenches addiction deeply. Furthermore, it institutionalizes people in facilities where the care is very – there’s no care. We call it a “correctional” system, but it doesn’t correct anything. It’s a punitive system. So people suffer more, and then they come out, and of course they’re more entrenched in their addiction than they were when they went in.
There is little disagreement that the war on drugs has been a complete failure. It has cost American taxpayers billions of dollars, spurred the growth of our criminal justice system, fueled the militarization of the police and been completely ineffective in curbing or even diminishing drug abuse rates.
But perhaps most importantly, the war on drugs has come at a great human cost and - as Dr. Mate points – is not a war on drugs but, rather, a war on people.
Drug abuse is first and foremost a public heath issue. A substance abuse disorder is a disease that requires health-based treatment. Drug addiction can change the very chemicals in a person’s brain, making overcoming the addiction a life-long challenge. But rather than build up a robust system of support for members of our community grappling with addiction, our current drug war paradigm instead has us relying on policies that further punish people through the criminal justice system. Criminalizing addiction has not only contributed to the unprecedented growth of our justice system, it has perpetuated the false message that substance abuse disorders are individual moral failings, and that those suffering from it are deserving of punishment and exclusion from society.
As Dr. Mate identifies, by criminalizing addiction are we are failing to address the root causes of drug abuse. Take, for example, the case of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Nationally we are seeing a uptick in the number of veterans incarcerated in our prisons and jails, many of them suffering PTSD. One study estimated that nearly half of the 207,161 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans formally diagnosed with PTSD have had contact with our criminal justice system. This is due in large part to rising rates of drug addiction, particularly due to prescription painkillers. One study of enlisted Marines found that of those suffering from PTSD were six times more likely to be arrested for a drug crime than those without PTSD.
Once convicted of a drug crime - particularly a felony-level drug crime - veterans face a whole slew of consequences that don't get them the help they need. Active service members can be discharged (the Army has discharged 19,842 soldiers with felony convictions since 2001) and veterans risk losing their VA benefits, are no longer eligible for public housing and face significant barriers to finding employment.
The war on drugs has been one of the most expensive and least effective government policies ever devised. It has needlessly swept millions of people into our criminal justice system, cost taxpayers billions and been completely ineffective in curbing addiction. Waging a war on our fellow community members is not the answer. After nearly four decades of failed policy, it is time for a new approach.
