AHS Views

I was on the phone with a man several weeks ago who was looking for an addiction treatment program for his son. After speaking with him for a few moments I realized that his effort to help his son get treatment was fueled by an argument with his wife. The man didn’t actually want his son to get addiction help but, as he told me, thought he should “rot in jail.”

It is not uncommon for parents to want to punish their children when they have done terrible things because of drug addiction. But rotting in jail won’t actually handle the problem. If you want someone to change, you have to address the problem.

In some cases, even when parents don’t realize that addiction help is better than jail, the courts do – they’ll sentence offenders to addiction treatment instead of prison. In fact, I just read an article about a man who escaped a prison sentence for a drug-fueled assault and was given 6 months in an addiction treatment program instead.

If the program he was sentenced to is successful, it will not only get this guy off drugs, he’ll also be out of the justice system permanently.

I hope the man I spoke to about his son will, at some point, realize that you can’t overcome addiction by sending someone to prison. The only thing that will handle the situation is the addiction help services he needs.