by Fred Tolleson

Created on: August 10, 2008

As presently constructed, our healthcare system doesn't want anything to do with drug addiction in youngsters, oldsters, or anyone else! After dealing with abusers over a 35 year career in public office, my assesment of the miserable performance of the healthcare system is based on one simple bit of fact: Nobody knows how to cure the problem!

If you are administering a system that is pelted with high costs for a particular range of problems, like drug rehab, you soon develop a thick hide to the pleas of the addicts for more care. Your day to day experience tells you that a very small percentage of the day to day addicts will ever make it free from substance abuse. Furthermore, the few that escape from addictions many problems would probably have succeeded under any set of circumstances. Consequently, you soon fall into the opinion that our health care system doesn't know how to cure drug addiction and does not want to deal with the problems. They are terribly expensive, mostly long term, involve medical, dental, pyschological and counseling services to even make a dent in the range of problems suffered by this group of humans.

One of the major considerations in dealing with young drug users, is how far do we have to go to insure a return to a normal life style and be free of addiction? On intake assesment, it is usually discovered that severe nutrient inbalances exist. A few shots of a broad span of vitamins and the time needed for the body to absorb and replace lost quantities does wonders. The dental exam usually shows teeth missing, or on the verge of falling out. Think in term of the expenses of a child going in for straightening out their teeth! A glance at the lifestyle statement taken at intake usually shows a severe sleep deprivation that could take years to reverse so the addict can sleep in normal patterns. Without this vital change in sleep they are soon back on their feet at 3AM looking for their friends and the "toys". A psychological evaluation could show anything from a need for anger management training to loss of self-image (total loss). Most of these deficits can be overcome in 6-8 months of intensive counseling and a prescription for anti-depressants along with a short conversation about not selling their drugs to friends or abusing the medicine.

And so it goes! For the few lines of treatment noted above we have incurred in excess of $150,000 (or more) and the addict is merely in treatment - not cured. Cure may never occur. The best you should hope for is a complete cessation in use of drugs over a very long period of time.

Does the health care system do enough for young substance abusers? No, they don't and that is the "bad news". The "good news" is that nobody else does either!

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