@WestRiverrat & @Lightlyseared: I agree. All of these “wars” have become industries through greed and cynicism and because of this, they are ineffective. I cite the “war” that I am most acquainted with as a nurse. The “war” on drugs and homelessness. From my experience working homeless shelters—actual camps of 400 hundred or better—I can assure you that more than half of the homeless are either presently addicted to one substance or another, or are felons unable to get work due to earlier drug-related crime. This is compounded with poor education (many without a high school diplomas) and untreated underlying psychological problems which drove them to drugs in the first place. There is big money in drug rehab through federal, state and local government funding. A noble effort, but wasted in the hands of unscrupulous small rehab outfits, many proclaiming to be “faith based,” but utterly dependent on these funds, filling their beds, uninterested in graduating their clients, and at the same time charging these clients 25 to 33% of their income, if any (usually from off-the-books work or fast food jobs), for room, board and treatment. This expense at these wages ensure a long, dependent stay in the half-way house. I can’t help but think that this is calculated to be so. It certainly isn’t conducive to independence. A few of these half-way houses (too many!) ignore the fact that many of these clients go out on the street and continue to sell and abuse drugs during the day, because the rehabs and half-way houses are don’t want to lose them as an income stream. And the natural inclination of the drug-addicted client is to take full advantage of this while these badly trained, poorly disciplined staff turn a blind eye. I’ve heard one of these “preachers,’ the head of one of these outfits, justify this as the devil funding the word of God. What shear cynicism and bullshit.
On the other side, you have an increasingly privatized prison system, state contracts held by publicly held corporations which are paid by the occupied bed. It is in the interests of these corporations to lobby the State and Washington for “zero-tolerance” laws and mandatory sentencing (taking the discretion out of the presiding judge’s hands) in order to ensure those beds are filled by non-violent people who need REAL rehabilitation. Instead, more people are dumped back into society as felons who are, more often than not, unable to find work and therefore either end up on the street and on drugs, or in a tent in a homeless camp, supported by your tax dollars. Recidivism is rampant, hopelessness and victimization by those who are entrusted with their rehabilitation is widespread. I’ve heard these clients joke about their supposed Narc Anon and AA meetings, their ineffective, apathetic drug counselors and that it is all for show in order to get money. Trust that a substance abuser will not take the initiative to rectify this situation—they will gladly abide by it. As I’ve tend to these people’s physical wounds and infections while they live in the mud in tent cities, I’ve seen them time and again being referred off to these useless facilities. It all is extremely disheartening.
Genuine drug abuse rehabilitation in necessary in order to deal with this horrible problem. Assessing these people for work skills, education, substance abuse and dealing directly with these problems is the only solution to a national disaster that is eating us alive in costs of law enforcement, incarceration, emergency room visits, hospitalization, homelessness—not to mention the collateral human damage of violence toward women and children, growth of illicit industries and powerful outlaws, etc., etc., it goes on and on. We, as a punitive society have been going about this all wrong. We first incarcerate the abuser, then parole them into a netherworld with every incentive for recidivism and incarcerate them again. We have put rehabilitation efforts into ineffective, poorly supervised units. By doing all of this, we break of family units, we ensure a permanent underclass, and we don’t solve the root problem of individual substance abuse. Fie people who find this overwhelming and say that it can’t be done, trust me, we as a society have no choice but to work harder to solve this problem as it is arriving in formerly safe homes on a daily basis. There are so some answers to be found in outher countries, but American arrogance prevents us from taking these solutions home. We must always re-invent the wheel the American way. This is sheer folly.
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