Rehab Causes Addiction: The Reciprocal Relationship of the War on Drugs and Addiction Treatment
Introduction:
Raging through our communities, the opioid epidemic has left a trail of death and destitution in its wake. As the number of deaths increase at an unprecedented rate, this drug epidemic has surpassed all others in its lethality. No previous epidemic has claimed lives like the opioid epidemic; by both overdose death and the ruinous effects on the lives of the addicted.
As the deadly shockwaves of opioid addiction rip through lives, desperate cries for solutions grow louder.
Drug prohibition, and the War on Drugs, sprang from the moralist authoritarianism agenda; the racism, which drove early drug prohibition, was steeped in the arrogance of white supremacy which assumed moral superiority.
As our country is ravaged by the opioid crisis, the cry for increased access to treatment in lieu of incarceration grows louder. Ostensibly this is the more rational, more humane approach. However, the War on Drugs and rehab share a symbiotic relationship which functions to coerce drug users into accepting and submitting (to the stigmatized social role assigned by moralist authoritarianism).
Rehab is often thought of as a kinder, medical approach for treating addiction. In actuality, 90%…
