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The Role Of Law Enforcement In Reducing Heroin And Opioid Addiction
OVERVIEW
Heroin and opioid addiction has reached epidemic proportions in this country resulting in rising numbers of fatal overdoses among our children and adults. This puts a strain on law enforcement and medical resources and frustrates addiction professionals while at the same time ripping families apart. The United States is the only country in the western world facing this rising tide and we are being attacked on several fronts at the same time. Therefore, we must confront this epidemic with the same resolve we confront terrorism.
Cheap, potent, heroin is flooding across our borders. Recent studies have concluded that four in five new heroin users started out misusing prescription painkillers. A 2014 survey reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry found that 94% of respondents in treatment for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were far more expensive and more difficult to obtain. Social service agencies, educators and health care professionals are overwhelmed and under supported in their efforts to not only prevent the use of these drugs, but in their work to treat those who have fallen victim.
This is a national crisis.
POSITION
It is the position of the Smithers Foundation that the effort to overcome this crisis must begin with law enforcement, which must play a significant role in prevention, treatment and recovery. A wall of protection must be built that will include the Border Patrol, the Coast Guard, national and municipal police forces. prosecutors, courts and the corrections community, electronic surveillance and physical barriers where they will be effective. Only a well-coordinated, well-funded effort to fight this battle will result in victory. Unfortunately, even in the face of the continuing erosion of our youth, many advocacy groups continue to view law enforcement as the enemy and not part of the solution. They are wrong. Law enforcement is the key to prevention because the best path to attack this epidemic is the cutting off of the supply of heroin and opioids. Starting at our borders law enforcement resources must be increased.
But we cannot stop there. From small town sheriffs to big city police departments, law enforcement must be committed to expand their activities beyond interdiction and arrest. That will require their support of drug education programs, treatment services, and judicial alternatives to prison. Along these lines the Rutgers University Center of Alcohol Research, which is funded by the Smithers Foundation has begun to offer free training to help New jersey police departments deal with addiction. Other support for this position is demonstrated by LICADD (Long Island Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependency), which works with the Suffolk County Police Department, as soon as a drug arrest is made, to determine if the arrestee is an addict and gets that person help. Another successful program is DTAP (Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison) pioneered by the District Attorney in Brooklyn. NY DTAP has now become a growing national movement. Dealers are not eligible for alternative programs such as these. A recent program announced by the US Attorney for the Southern District of NY, Preet Bharara, exemplifies the kind of comprehensive strategy needed to fight addiction. He has asked local police departments to report fatal overdoses to his office. He will then use the considerable resources of his office to track down these dealers of death and charge them with federal crimes, which carry long prison sentences upon conviction. But first we must understand that heroin/opioids are incredibly addictive and make any hope for real recovery extremely difficult. The importance of using law enforcement must not just be viewed as having a punishment dimension. Rather we must encourage a redefinition of that role.
The Smithers Foundation position is that building prisons will not solve this problem but law enforcement should in fact serve on many different levels and therefore become an integral part of the entire recovery and rehabilitation process. The fact that law enforcement will remain involved from the onset will ensure that compliance with recovery efforts is more assured and relapse will be less likely. Heroin addiction eventually overwhelms one’s life, effective job and educational performance and leads some to become dealers in the drug in order to support their own habit. Law enforcement must recognize the difference between a user/dealer and a dealer whose prime motivation is to make money off the desperation of others.
As the law enforcement role extends beyond arrest the opportunity for addicts to turn the corner will be significantly enhanced by this understanding. It is well known that bonds are more commonly formed when people interact with each other and with time and with commitment, this is an outcome we can hope to see between addicts and the sophisticated well administered programs run by the authorities.
Who better then to ensure recovery than those who can compel it? And only then will we have a chance for a successful realistic reduction in drug use.
America In Peril: Attacking the Heroin and Opioid Addiction Crisis in America: Enforcement, Prevention and Education
By Christopher B. Smithers
Dr. Toby Cosgrove, CEO of The Cleveland Clinic and member of President Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum vividly described a country on the brink of disaster when he noted in a television interview that during the entire Vietnam War America lost 53,000 people. “Last year,” he went on to say “52,000 people died of opioid abuse.”
“A Vietnam War is taking place in our country every year,” he said.
I could not agree more. This is a war that knows no geographic or demographic boundaries. From desperate inner cities through wealthy, urban enclaves, middle-class suburbs, and out to our poorest rural areas regardless of age, race, education, marital status, political leanings or even athletic ability, any way you measure it we are under attack from cheap heroin and easily obtainable opioids.
We have come to a point where the New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio has authorized newspaper advertisement telling people to purchase and carry doses of Naloxone to administer in case they come across someone who has overdosed, as if it is such a common event that you might see your next door neighbor passed out on his lawn. It would be satire if it was not so frightening.
First responders throughout the country have been carrying Naloxone for some time now and law enforcement has shown determination and innovation for their part. The NYPD recently started an “Opioid Squad” to join its cadre of specialized squads like homicide and arson units. In 2016 there were four times as many heroin overdoses as murders in New York City.
However, we agree with the experts that law enforcement’s efforts alone are not the answer.
We support the use of targeted advertising. The national anti-smoking television ads proved very effective in the ongoing struggle to reduce smoking among teenagers. Those ads are effective because they show the horrible effects of a lifetime of smoking. They picture people struggling to breathe, they tell stories of youngsters who lose their parents to smoking, they show real life examples of people scarred and deformed by the effects of a lifetime of addiction to nicotine.
We need television ads like those aimed at drug abuse. We need to demonstrate to our youth the horrors that await them if they continue on a path that often starts with alcohol abuse, to experimenting with drugs they find in their parent’s medicine chests or are over prescribed to them by a doctor. The irresponsible use of these powerful drugs, some are used to put elephants to sleep, can lead to brain damage, physical disability and death.
These advertisements must be crafted in a way so the message is one of deterrence rather than stigmatizing those suffering the illness of heroin and opioid addiction. They must also be constructed to specifically target young people.
The “Journal of Health Communication” in 2002 reported that, the most successful anti-smoking campaigns were those that specifically targeted youth with their message rather than the broader audience. In advertising the “one size fits all” approach is widely recognized as unsuitable.
The medical profession, the treatment community and law enforcement knows all this. The challenge is to get our young people to understand it. Advertisements on all media platforms; television, social networks and newspapers is a way to go that has not been fully exploited. We support any of these efforts.
At the same time we must continue our research into addiction. Learning how it works will lead us to more ways to controlling it. The Smithers Foundation has had great success in the field of alcohol abuse education, research and treatment and we are here to lend our support to similar work in the battle of the opioid epidemic.
Parents, clergy, teachers and school guest instructors all play a significant role in educating young people about the devastating effect heroin and opioid use and addiction will have on their lives. This must continue but more must be done.
Schools at all levels should include in their curriculum a structured course of study that teaches the dangers of experimentation with drugs and how it can lead to a life of addiction. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) firmly supports the idea of schools developing a required course focusing on the multi-faceted and dangerous world of drugs and drug use.
A growing number of colleges and universities around the country now offer at freshman orientation, sessions on the risks of binge drinking. These sessions should be expanded to include the dangers of drug abuse. Studies show that alcohol abuse by young people leads them in search of the greater high. Given the availability of prescription drugs and the relative inexpensive cost of heroin, that greater high is not hard to find.
America is in the throes of an epidemic. Heroin and opioid abuse is destroying individuals, destroying families and destroying communities across our great county. We have an obligation to see to it that those addicted are treated, those who traffic arrested and prosecuted AND those who have never touched a pill or never used heroin in any form get the message that those drugs will kill you.
Christopher B. Smithers
President of the Smithers Foundation
www.smithersfoundation-staging.jjzizzr3-liquidwebsites.com
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How Opioid Treatment Has Fueled The Epidemic!
Treating addiction, especially opioid addiction, is as challenging as treating cancer. For more than half a century the Smithers Foundation has been supporting research and treatment of alcohol use disorder and substance abuse. What is important and what must remain consistent in the field of recovery, is the employ of medical and psychiatric personnel and professionals trained in this field who are educated in the latest advances in addiction treatment and to make sure that an addict who wants help is first examined and then treated by these experts.
Our concern is that in the growing field of so called “sober houses” and many treatment centers you find none of this. We’re referring to poorly regulated and unprofessional facilities operated by profiteers. It is not uncommon for an overdose victim to be a current or former resident of a sober house or unprofessional facility.
We may be painting with a wide brush but unfortunately the sober house and treatment center run by medical professionals is a rarity. The Internet is full of glossy advertisements offering comfortable residential conditions.
One “upscale sober living” facility in New York offers this:
We offer First Class amenities including our own personal chef, full maid service, and weekly sober activities. A distinctive attribute of the house is the calm and peaceful ambiance. Serenity can be found in our beautiful, tranquil outdoor courtyard.
Their extensive website makes no mention of medical professionals on staff.
Typically, these facilities do not offer much medical care or quality counseling or oversight of the residents and do not employ professionals or a trained medical staff. Addicts and families are fooled into thinking that this luxury sounding place is the way to sobriety for themselves or their loved one when in reality they are unknowingly putting themselves or their loved one in another unhealthy situation.
We believe that an attractive environment with quality amenities is important, but without a professional medical staff on duty 24/7 this is just a Trojan horse.
Often times the “counselors” are those who are out of rehab a few years more than the new residents of the facility. They are not trained medical doctors, nor are they properly trained professionals in the treatment field. A former resident who had been there for a stay becomes the counselor for someone newly arrived. This practice is based on the AA and NA model of someone who has been sober longer being qualified to take a newer arrival through the 12 steps to sobriety. While AA’s/NA methodology, using group support, is only 20% successful when employed by and with a middle-aged population in conjunction with the 12 steps, it is proving to be even less successful with today’s younger generation addicted to opioids.
It is our view that to be legitimate and effective, sober houses and treatment centers must meet these minimal requirements:
- Medical personnel, including psychiatrists, trained in treating addiction and supporting recovery, must be on staff and the point people for the client.
- Drugs to aid in recovery must be administered by medical/psychiatric professionals only.
- Trained, professional counselors with a graduate school degree in the addiction field must be available 24/7.
- The 12- step approach of having recovering addicts with no other qualifications act as counselors/advisors to new residents must be prohibited. It is like the blind leading the blind!
- Mandatory government oversight.
Newspapers and television news often report stories of someone going to a hospital for an injury or illness only to become worse by contracting an infectious disease from the many potential sources in a hospital. This horrific set of circumstances is what adults and youth of America are now being subjected to. People who are beginning on a path to recovery, are taking the next “prescribed” step. There, they and their loved one are expecting treatment which they hope and pray will ultimately lead to a peaceful and addiction free life. Except what they get is one of those “infectious diseases” from unsupervised interaction with other addicts, untrained counselors with lack of experience and expertise in addiction and the absence of medical, psychiatric and treatment professionals they can go to when they are experiencing the symptoms from their addiction. Either the person, when they leave the facility, is worse off than they come in or their addiction is the same and they quickly resort to self-medicating. In many cases and in particular in the sober houses, people are getting high and overdosing in them. We must fix this sober house and treatment center crisis and we must do it now! We must treat addiction no differently than any other medical illness. Sadly, addiction treatment is not performed as well and research for it is not funded nearly as much as other life-threatening diseases.
The youth of America are our most precious resource. We must not allow their future to be defined by addiction and ruined by ineffective and dangerous treatment facilities.
Christopher B. Smithers President of The Smithers Foundation