Rehabilitation: The way to save the lives of Addicts

Some drugs such as marijuana are not as addictive as other drugs such as cocaine. However, many people say that marijuana is not addicting at all and they say they can stop smoking at any time; nonetheless they still use it because of the feeling of high that marijuana gives. On the other hand we know for a fact that cocaine is addictive, once you try it is almost impossible not to get addicted.

To stop the use and production of drugs the government declared war on drugs, however that does not help the people who already use it. The ideal is for all people to stop using drugs, but that won’t happen because people who are addicted to drugs will suffer from withdrawal and it will be difficult for them to stop. The way to help drug addicts is by taking them to a rehabilitation center; where doctors and specialists try to get people off the addiction, make them functional and valuable for society again. Even though there is an extensive amount of data about the effectiveness of the treatments used at rehabilitation centers, many people believe that the methods use don’t work. People believe that because they have unrealistic expectations and want to be cured quickly; but since an addiction is a chronic disorder, the ultimate goal is to never use drugs again which often requires sustained and repeated treatment episodes.

I believe that if instead of sentencing people for possession or consumption of drugs, they were sent to rehabilitation centers more lives would be saved, in the sense that once they leave rehabilitation they can go back to society unlike right now that when a person gets out of jail they go back to selling and using drugs.