When considering whether drug rehabilitation is a societal investment that leads to greater returns for our communities we need only ask ourselves the question: What value do we place on human life? We as people are the makers of our communities, and so you see, the only answer to this question is one which places the value of a person’s life above all else.
And the approach of “no cost is too great to save people from the blight of drug and alcohol abuse,” actually proves itself in the real financial numbers. The cost of drug abuse taxes our nation’s economies to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Increased health care, lost productivity and rising crime is the cause of this astronomical loss in revenue for the United States. According to the government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, the overall cost estimate is close to 600 billion dollars. Out of this, 181 billion dollars a year is from illegal drug use, and 185 billion dollars a year is from alcohol addiction. Other areas of civil infrastructure that are impacted negatively from the drug addiction that sweeps our communities are the prison systems and drug enforcement agencies, who’s numbers are increasing to meet the demand. Yet despite all this, no real solution to the eradication of drug abuse is on the horizon.
Jail or Rehab?
For some the solution seems to be to lock up those engaged in illegal use of alcohol or drugs. That is indeed what is currently being done, to a point that our prisons are so over-crowded there is real danger to the system and those incarcerated in it. It is clear that more time, effort, and money must be invested in the recovery and rehabilitation of individuals who have found themselves in the grips of addiction—not just in the confinement of them.
Successful drug addiction treatment brings all the associated costs of drug addiction down tremendously. To prove this point, the average cost of treatment for several months is much less than the approximate $24,000 it costs to incarcerate someone for a year and then another and then another. According to some estimates that have been made, every dollar that is invested in treatment programs gives a return of between $4 and $7 in reduced justice and drug-related crime costs. When including the associated healthcare costs that are eliminated by eliminating the addictions, it’s been estimated the return is 12 to every 1 dollar invested.
Mental & Physical Rehabilitation
These estimates don’t really include the human and moral costs that are almost impossible to calculate. What is it worth to a family to save a child or parent from certain death? Many times we’ve heard those who have lost loved ones say they would give all the money in the world to have the person back in their lives. What’s the price we pay when whole generations of children are raised in a culture that glorifies and promotes escapism through drug and alcohol abuse? Not only are their lives put on a path to destruction, but the good they could have done in the world is wiped out as well.
In the end there really is no question on whether the money, time and effort we invest in drug rehabilitation are worth it. If we chose no other path as a nation but to focus solely on eliminating drug and alcohol abuse amongst our citizenry, it would surely bring about a moral and economic resurgence of our country, the likes of which we have never seen.