The Hostile Effects of Prisons and "Treatment" Programs on Drug Addicts

Addicts leave certain treatment programs damaged. Here in Denver, "PEER 1" (a notoriously ineffective and brutal, but enduring Therapeutic Community for drug addicts, or "TC") seems to have blessed the city with a number of psychologically and emotionally maimed graduates. Ms. Margo Coleman, MA, CACIII, who was the dual-diagnosis coordinator at the "Crossroads to Freedom House," at Arrowhead Correctional center, - a "Therapeutic Community" that shares a certain amount of ideological ancestry with PEER 1 - scoffed at this accusation. She countered that "They were doing drugs, so the damage was done a long time before they ever got there."

One doesn't need to think about it all that hard, to see that as in days past with witches, homosexuals, the "mad" (mentally ill), and "hysterical" (unhappy and sensitive, or independent and fractious) women, the sick and injured addict is "fair game" at this point in history.(see Ceremonial Chemistry: The Ritual Persecution of Drugs, Addicts, and Pushers by Thomas Szasz).

I have searched prisons, within the walls themselves and also in the offices and the corridors of these larger, minimum-security facilities that our cities have become, and at least where this game ("drugs") is played; genuine "innocent victims" seem to be in very short supply

(Of course, as always, there is one group that truly has no choice in these matters. That group of course is children; they can't even walk out on abusive, drug-addicted parents without, one way or another, starting a chain reaction of clumsy, and predominantly inhuman and procedural events).

The visible behaviors of "drug users" and "addicts" may be nauseating to the uninitiated observer. Even the experienced user may find in that occasional "moment of clarity" that 12-step groups speak of, that his or her surroundings have become truly squalid, and that while not all of his or her companions are thieves and back stabbers, everyone seems to be in poor health.