Drug Addiction Treatment is Cost Effective

In the United States, substance abuse costs over one half-trillion dollars annually. Treatment for substance abuse can lower these costs. Studies show that drug addiction treatment can reduce associated health and social costs by far more than expensive alternatives, such as incarceration of addicted persons. Drug addiction treatment reduces drug use and its associated health and social costs. According to several conservative estimates, every one dollar invested in addiction treatment programs yields a return of between four and seven dollars in reduced crime, criminal justice costs and theft related to drugs. When bookkeepers take into account the savings related to health, total savings can exceed costs by a ratio of 12 to 1. Major savings to the individual and to society also stem from fewer interpersonal conflicts, greater workplace productivity and fewer accidents related to drugs, including overdoses and deaths.

Physical Health

Proper nutrition is essential to all healing processes. In rehab, the chefs prepare a diverse assortment of cuisines that are delicious and well balanced. The treatment team also offers consultation on the use of vitamins and supplements. Certified Fitness Instructors organize physical training. During treatment, patients attend two individual fitness sessions per week that utilize the residential gym, tennis courts and the adjacent beach. In addition, there is personalized core strengthening and an individualized aerobic exercise plan. Physical therapy also treats each patient as an individual and provides a pathway that leads to optimum physical function. Trainers design each program in accordance with the lifestyle and injuries a patient presents. During treatment, trainers aim to help each patient become healthier through tailored exercise and strengthening programs. By graduation, better physical health also helps a patient adopt habits that support a healthy lifestyle.

Treatment Medications

Medications can be an important component of effective drug abuse treatment for offenders. By allowing the body to function normally, prescription medications enable the addict to leave behind a life of crime and drug abuse. For example, opioid agonist and partial agonist medications, which act at the same receptors as heroin, morphine and natural brain endorphins, are effective at helping an individual remain in treatment. Antagonist medications, which work by blocking the effects of a drug, are effective but patients do not often take the drugs regularly. Despite evidence of the effectiveness of medicines, doctors prescribe addiction medications but patients underutilize them in the treatment of drug abusers within the criminal justice system. Still, some jurisdictions have found ways to successfully implement medication therapy for drug abusing offenders.

Opiates Heroin

Long term opiate abuse results in a desensitization of the opiate receptors to endorphins in the brain. Endorphins are natural opioids in the body. Methadone acts on the same receptors as the natural endorphins, stabilizing the craving that otherwise results in compulsive use of heroin or other illicit opiates. Methadone effectively reduces opiate use, criminal behavior related to drugs and risky HIV behaviors. Buprenorphine is a partial agonist and acts on the same receptors as morphine, a full agonist, but without producing the same level of dependence or withdrawal symptoms. Suboxone® is a unique formulation of buprenorphine that contains naloxone, an opioid antagonist, which limits diversion by causing severe withdrawal symptoms in those who inject it to get high, but has no adverse effects when taken orally, as prescribed. Naltrexone, an opiate antagonist, blocks the effects of opiates.