Seven times more people are initially accessing drug rehabilitation services after their release from prison since a new prison exit scheme was introduced in Tower Hamlets last year.

“Drugs can be a contributing factor of many crimes in Tower Hamlets, including burglaries, anti-social behaviour and knife violence. 

“Prisoners returning to drug use on their release means they are more likely to end up back in the vicious cycle of committing crimes to fund their habits. However, with this new scheme we are thrilled to see we are disrupting this pattern and giving people a chance to claim back their lives free from drugs after being released. 

“The prison exit scheme is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month. Its success is great news for our community as it is reducing crime and re-offending and helping people with drug addictions access support and improve their health.” 

The prison exit service is commissioned by Tower Hamlets Council and delivered by social enterprise Turning Point. 

(D.I. comment – This is one potential and vital outcome that is erased from the drug use exiting playbook, when you decriminalize, or worse legalize drug use. You don’t have to change the legal status of drug use to recalibrate the existing laws to facilitate exit from drug use without ultimate criminal sanctions. Drug or better labelled ‘Problem Solving Courts’ can leverage the illegality of drugs to better enable and equip exit from drug use, the cause of soooo many anti-social and community harming behaviours. Pro-drug activists care nothing for the addictive outcomes and destroyed lives of young people and their families – often irreversible harms to all. 

Also see 

• Problem Solving Courts ACT steering Drug Use Offenders away from serving jail time through rehab
• The Judicial Educator At Its Best – Law for Recovery + Drug Courts + Secure Welfare = Rehabilitation!

For complete story 

By the time someone reaches out for addiction care, they may have already have suffered numerous painful losses in their lives. Addiction can steal a person’s happiness, job, friends and family, and can erode their freedom.

Far too often, the expectation is that someone must hit “rock bottom” before treatment can work. But this is a myth that can have dire consequences. By then the damage is consequential and a much harder road to recovery. Factually, the best time to get help is as soon as possible. Yet frequently when a person asks for help early on, society – friends and family, coworkers, health care systems – do not recognize it as a serious issue. They may ignore or deny it.

Healthcare in the U.S. [All Nations] is notoriously bad at delivering preventive medicine. Despite the well-known conventional wisdom that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, the system has always been set up to treat diseases and disorders once they manifest, not avert them. This has started to change for some conditions, however. For instance, it is now standard to monitor risk factors like cholesterol, blood pressure, and BMI during routine checkups, so that steps can be taken to avert heart attacks or stroke through some combination of lifestyle changes and medications.

Dr Volkow – Nora's Blog

Pre-addiction—A Missing Concept for Treating Substance Use Disorders

JAMA Psychiatry. Published online July 6, 2022. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.1652

Despite decades of federal funding to develop and deliver treatments for individuals with serious addictions, treatment penetration rates are less than 20%.¹ Facing a similar situation, the diabetes field increased treatment penetration and impact by identifying and intervening with early-stage diabetes, termed prediabetes. We use this example to illustrate the essential elements of this strategic clinical approach and discuss the changes that will be required within the substance use disorder (SUD) field to implement an analogous strategy. We suggest the DSM-5 diagnostic categories mild to moderate SUD as a starting operational definition for the term preaddiction, a commonly understood, motivating term that could engender broader clinical efforts to effect that strategy.

For complete details

“Meth can be one of the toughest addictions to treat, but research shows that people who use meth are more likely to stick with treatment programs when they receive rewards for staying drug-free. It’s a method called “contingency management…”

In study after study, contingency management has resulted in a 40% to 50% rate of abstinence in meth users, according to Dr. Todd Korthuis, the head of addiction medicine at Oregon Health & Science University. Results like that are “off the charts” for any therapeutic intervention, he told The Lund Report, “but especially for methamphetamine use.”

And it’s cost-effective, supporters say. The Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that for a single patient receiving a total of $600 in incentives, there’s a taxpayer benefit of more than $3,000 and overall net economic benefit of more than $23,000.”

For complete article

(Dalgarno Institute Comments: What are the pitfalls of this potential ‘reward for addiction’ model? Is there a ‘sunset clause’ on this process? If so, what mechanisms are used in tandem with this process to ensure abstinence is maintained? Is behaviour modification through displacement therapy (not ‘payment’ therapy) still applicable? Are other addiction management tools like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy still involved?)

So, When Can I Burn My Bridges Again? Dealing With Toxic Relationships in Addiction Spaces

Moving out and on and using lived experience and earned resiliency to be a proactive agent for prevention, not just recovery.

View PDF

Abstinence: Not the only option, but clearly the best one for your well-being – In the U.S. in 2016, 54% of adults in recovery reported continuous or current abstinence, and 46% reported current use of a secondary substance, primary substance, or both. Lower risk substance use statuses (i.e., continuous abstinence, current abstinence) were associated with more years in recovery, greater recovery capital, self-esteem, happiness, quality of life, and less psychologcal distress. Higher risk substance use statuses (i.e., current use of secondary substance, primary substance, or both) were associated with younger age of substance use initiation and a greater number of psychiatric diagnoses.

For complete research