Is alcohol and drug treatment
too costly? Think about it. Every year millions of people
enter alcohol and drug treatment facilities with substance
use disorders. However, an estimated 20 million Americans
that should have, didn't enter treatment, stating many different
reasons as the barriers preventing them from entering an
alcohol and drug treatment center. One of the most common
excuses one hears out on the street is that alcoholics and
drug addicts can't afford the cost of alcohol and drug treatment.
Is quality alcohol and drug treatment
becoming too expensive? First, let's examine the obvious
- the cost of active addiction.
ALCOHOL ADDICTION
Concerning just alcohol addiction
treatment, and yes alcoholism is an addiction, SAMHSA
(Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration)
estimated in 2005 that as many as 18.7 million Americans
could have heavy drinking problems with another 52.6 million
falling into the adult binge drinker category. Binge use
of alcohol is defined as drinking 5 or more drinks on the
same occasion, on at least 1 day in the past 30 days. Approximately
42.1 million of these heavy and binge drinkers were employed
either full or part time during 2005.
Even drinking alcohol moderately
affects one's driving, interacts with most medications and
can cause birth defects. Not to mention, heavy drinking
can cause a number of serious medical conditions. In 2004,
an estimated 363,641 emergency room visits involved consumption
of alcohol in combination with another drug. Alcoholism
is also responsible for about a half billion lost work days
every year.
COCAINE OR CRACK COCAINE
TREATMENT
One form of cocaine is a white powder
that dissolves in water and can be either shot-up intravenously
or snorted through the nose. The other is crack cocaine
that has not been neutralized by an acid and is smoked in
a glass tube. Cocaine use among Americans rose significantly
from 2004 to 2005.
Cocaine addiction can cause any number
of heart, respiratory or gastrointestinal problems including
stroke and seizures. The combination of cocaine and alcohol
is the most common two-substance interaction that results
in drug-related death. Cocaine was the cause of an estimated
383,350 emergency room visits in 2004.
ECSTASY (MDMA) USE AMONG
AMERICA'S YOUTH DECLINES
Some good news on the home front
is that drug use among America's youth seems to be decreasing.
One indication is that Ecstasy, a synthetic stimulant and
hallucinogenic, consumed in tablet form, was tried for the
first time by 1.2 million young Americans in 2004 and by
about 615,000 in 2005.
Ecstasy can cause neurological and
brain damage. Some of it's negative effects are confusion,
depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, craving for the drug,
and paranoia. The use Ecstasy during physical exertion or
in hot environments can cause dehydration, hypothermia,
and heart or kidney failure. People with circulatory problems
or heart disease face particular risks because Ecstasy can
increase heart rate and blood pressure. Ecstasy caused an
estimated 8,621 young people to seek help at hospital emergency
rooms.
HEROIN AND OTHER OPIATE SUBSTANCE
TREATMENT
Opioids are narcotics and include
morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, and codeine. They are
prescribed by physicians to treat pain from cancer, terminal
illness, severe injury and surgery, but are widely abused
by heroin addicts when accessible.
Heroin is processed from morphine.
Most addicts shoot-up (inject) heroin, with smoking being
the second most popular route of administration and snorting
(to inhale) or ingesting orally almost unheard of. A few
of the most common street names for heroin are “brown
sugar,” “H,” and “smack".
Heroin use is associated with many
serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, spontaneous
abortion, collapsed veins, and infectious diseases, including
HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.
Once dependent on the highly addictive
narcotic, stopping heroin use abruptly causes moderate to
severe withdrawal symptoms including muscle and bone pain,
diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes, involuntary leg movements,
rapid or irregular heart beat, reduced appetite, weight
loss, heart failure, nervousness, and insomnia.
Opiates are the second highest reason
for being admitted to treatment among older adults, after
alcohol. In 2004, heroin was involved in an estimated 162,137
drug-related emergency department visits. Opiate pain medications
were involved in an estimated 158,281 emergency department
visits related to the non medical use of drugs. Codeine
pain medication was involved in approximately 5,836 of these
visits.
The cost of heroin addiction in the
United States was $21.9 billion in 1996. Of these costs,
productivity losses accounted for $11.5 billion, criminal
activities cost $5.2 billion, medical care cost $5 billion,
and social welfare cost $100 million.
CRYSTAL METH OR METHAMPHETAMINE
Crystal Meth (methamphetamine) and
amphetamines are stimulants that affect the central nervous
system. They can be consumed orally or by smoking, snorting
or shooting-up the drug. Some street names for crystal meth
are “crank,” “ice,” “crystal,”
“speed,” and many other regional variations.
In 2005, there were 512,000 current
users of meth in America's urban, suburban, and rural communities
nationwide. Recent laws that restrict the sale of cold medicines,
such as pseudoephedrine, which are used to manufacture meth
have reduced meth labs ability to produce the drug, causing
the price to rise significantly.
Meth has been known to cause heart
failure, brain damage, stroke, and sometimes death. It can
also cause many psychological changes, including anger,
panic, paranoia, hallucinations, and aggressive acts that
can lead to suicide.
Each pound of meth produced leaves
behind five or six pounds of toxic waste, usually disposed
of down plumbing drains, storm drains or dumped on the roadside.
Clean-up costs for a meth lab can range from $5,000.00 to
$100.000.00, depending on the environmental contamination.
Children living in and near meth
labs or living with a meth user have been known to suffer
serious health consequences as a result of exposure to second-hand
smoke. In 2004, amphetamines were involved in an estimated
32,686 emergency room visits, and crystal meth was involved
in an estimated 73,400 emergency room visits.
What
does all of this mean in terms of treatment being too expensive?
Substance
abuse is a major health problem that impacts society
on many levels. It costs our nation more than $484
billion per year in health care, lost earnings, crime
and accidents. Simply put, it means that drug and
alcohol addiction is responsible for placing a tremendous
burden on our nations economy every year. Is it any
wonder the insurance companies are becoming less and
less willing to pay for alcohol and drug treatment?
To help put
all of this into perspective, consider that in 2001
it was estimated that untreated addiction in the U.S.
carried a price tag of $276 billion (that cost has
now nearly doubled). At the time that was the equivalent
of roughly $1,050 per year for every man, woman, and
child in the country.
Yet, if back in 2001 each man, woman and child in the country
would have pitched in just $45, we could have treated everyone
in need of rehab at the time. That's a mere fraction of what
addiction cost us as Americans in 2001 and it's price tag
isn't going down any time soon.
So, the question remains, Is the
cost of alcohol and drug treatment too high? Think about
it, every dollar spent on alcohol and drug treatment saves
all of us much more in the long run. Not to mention - What
price tag do you place on a human life?
