So recently I was scrolling through my Facebook and came across an article titled “Let’s Make 2018 The Year We Diagnose And Treat Drug Addiction Like The Disease It Is.”

And while yes, I do agree with the argument that the author of this article is trying to make.

However, some of her facts aren’t right so this response article is coming from me who just took a course in exactly this. By no means am I an expert after just one course in this but I do have enough knowledge to correct the wrong facts that she has presented us.

Let’s start with the first statement “America, it's time that we wake up. It's time that we wake up and realize that treating people with drug addictions like criminals is not going to help anything.”

Believe it or not most people who are struggling with drug addiction don’t go to jail.

Most of them have jobs they go to work and they function in our society many of them you could look at and not be able to tell that they are addicted to a drug. By making this your very first statement you have used the stigma that we put on people who are struggling with this disease. By making this your first statement you are unknowingly painting the picture that all drug addicts are at rock bottom and are the homeless guy you see on the street begging for money. That’s not the case so my suggestion is don’t paint this kind of a picture and realize that many of the drug addicts in our country still are functioning and going to work.

The next thing I want to make known is that you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.

You can try you can make them go to AA or see a therapist or you can try and make them do any of the different treatment options but the fact of the matter is that if it wasn’t them that made the choice to get help and get clean they will relapse. You have to let them make the choice on their own.

Yes, treatment is a better solution than the other options people have like dying from an overdose or eventually hitting rock bottom.

However, each different treatment option has its own price tag. She has presented one price tag and one treatment option. The treatment option that has been presented is for methadone and maintains. And yes, the price tag on that one is $4700. However, the cost of inpatient rehab for just 30 days is $1400-$2700 , unfortunately, the thing with inpatient rehab is that people often have to go 3 or more times for it to actually work for them. AA/NA is another treatment option. Drug counseling is an option and the price of that is going to depend on what your insurance will and won't cover. Medically Assisted Treatment is also an option and the price tag on that also varies on several different things such as the medication that you are being given to assist in your treatment and where you are receiving your treatment.

Also, while yes 6% is a large number of people in our country to be addicted, however, unfortunately, some people just have a higher chance of becoming addicted to drugs.

And yes maybe the first time or the first few times are their choices but addiction to all drugs happens the same way that addiction to cigarettes happens.

Many people who struggle with addiction only hangout and spend time with other people who are addicted to drugs too. That means that to ever actually get clean and stay clean they have to stop spending time with those people.

Recovery has several different options because it is not a one size fits all fix for people. Relapse will more than likely happen. Getting clean and staying clean is hard and it's not as easy as people want to think that it is.