I agree! Rehab for at least 12 months then half way house for 12 months and if they stay clean give em a place of their own but with regular visits from social workers etc. Help them find new friends and support groups and hobbies as well as employment or volunteer work if they are well enough.
I'm a retired therapist, advanced alcohol and drug counselor, and worked with drug addicts for many years. I myself am 19 years clean and sober. I, too, believe that harm reduction is a failed experiment and has almost ruined our nation. Especially on the West Coast of the United States. I couldn't agree more! The fact that the scotus is involved in changing homelessness laws so they can be moved on is a good thing. Give people a choice to get in treatment but move them on if they refuse is the solution. The solution to homelessness is rehabilitation and strong boundaries. And recovery frees people from these kinds of things, but to allow drug addicts to continue to live on the streets and get high, steal freely, steal from the stores without any laws against stealing is a travesty for our country.
Agree mostly. Openly using drugs and selling on the street gives a green light to cause more. Most the stories from people are they don't want to give up the addiction and so as long as we keep enabling the problem it will grow. I get it is addiction but I struggle with the idea we have to provide for people who willingly are doing drugs. I see someone lose a job and become homeless I am for giving a helping hand. But i am not for carrying them thru life. To many sit on welfare and assistance for life. Now the drug problems that they chose to do and again. We are facing lifetime commitments to rehab and rehab again over and over for life. The burden of others who have no accountability is to much. We don't seem concerned about the Number one problem in the first place....ending the tidal wave of drugs being dumped all over this country. What's the point of drug regulation when it's available all over the place. No one seems all that concerned in fact quite a few places have changed laws accepting it. So asking people to pony up and take care of them seems wildly ridiculous. Giving them houses, food, and paraphernalia getting rid of jail sentences sure sounds like enabling to me!
Rehab is like a vacation to them; my ex went to literally every rehab in CO before telling me she was going to start drinking again and never stop. These places are posh, you couldn't afford to rent a spot like these - the addicts are taken care of like children, fed, drugged with pills, they get to comingle and use the facility as a Tinder hookup. They eat better than you, they don't have do any chores, they have no responsibilities short of gathering around a kumbaya circle to reminisce about their exploits. They exchange secrets - like if you can't find alcohol just drink hand sanitizer or filter scope through a loaf of bread. Things they may never have learned without rehab. They take each others numbers and boom the moment they are out and family is too hard on them they ring up a fellow addict and disappear into the darkness. At rehab they ARE housing them and after rehab they can go to a halfway house where they get put out on the street in the morn and have a curfew at night. Plenty of time to get wasted in the morn and sleep it off at the park before shacking up for the night. Rehab isn't the answer. Stopping the flow of drugs and alcohol IS the only lasting solution. If they cannot get it how would they use it? They wouldn't - they'd have to suffer withdrawals and sober up.
The reason the majority of homeless people have substance abuse issues is because of *mental illness*, they’re abusing substance to self medicate. They need mental health support. Think of all the people who are homeless with addiction, that are schizophrenic and are not taking the antipsychotics they need to function, so they substitute it with other chemicals. Also, keep in mind how many of these people don’t have health insurance so they’re unable to get the professional help they need.
