The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, out of Columbia University, just released a study that examines the amount of money, or lack thereof, being spent on drug treatment and prevention. The study found that substance abuse and addiction cost federal, state and local governments at least $467.7 billion in 2005. Of those monies, 374 billion dollars was spent on tobacco, alcohol, and substance abuse consequences including health care costs, crime, domestic violence, homelessness, child abuse and other consequences abuse and addiction, while only two percent of the funds were used to relieve individuals and taxpayers of these burdens through drug prevention and treatment.
Breaking it down, for every dollar spent, .96 cents went to funding the burden of addiction and only .02 cents of every dollar was spent on drug prevention and .02 cents of every dollar was spent on drug treatment. Despite the serious lack of drug prevention and drug treatment in the government’s budget, there is hope for addicts struggling with drug and/or alcohol addiction through effective drug rehabilitation programs.
One such program that does help and achieves an unheard of 75% success rate for permanent sobriety is the Narconon Louisiana drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. Narconon Louisiana is a long-term inpatient facility that focuses on isolating the reason why addicts start using drugs in the first place. “When you allow someone to handle their problems in life, you allow them to live a life without drugs.” Explains Jeff Lukas, Executive Director of Narconon Louisiana.
Narconon Louisiana’s unique method of detoxifying the body of drug residues through a dry heat sauna is just one of the ways they help addicts regain control of their lives. While Narconon Louisiana accepts a wide variety of people into their program, it is not uncommon to see clients who have first-hand experience with the negative consequences of addiction. “The problems of stealing, violence, and neglect are late on the chain,” says Mr. Lukas. “An addict has struggled for some time before they resort to that type of behavior.”
Even the Chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse agrees that more needs to be done to prevent and treat drug addiction and that using the majority of funding for the consequences of addiction will not do anything to solve the drug problem. “It’s time we reevaluated our priorities,” says Lukas. “I talk to people every-day that have no idea that there is help out there and think that addiction can’t be handled. And we are backing up this false idea by putting monies into handling the effects of addiction instead of the cause.” Effective drug treatment can permanently handle addiction.
If you or anyone you know is in need of a drug rehab program that gets stable, positive results for permanent recovery contact Narconon Louisiana or contact us today at 866-422-4650.
