A question that many health professionals, addicts, and stakeholders in the criminal justice system ask themselves regularly is: How can we break the cycle of addiction? The reason this question is on so many minds is because the disease of addiction effects over 25 million Americans and is one of the leading killers of young people. Many players in the criminal justice system and in society at large, are not trained in treating addiction as a disease, they often look at it as a reprehensible fault of character and a weakness of willpower. Addicts, however, are sick people and in looking at them as such, we can use the medical model of criminal justice to rehabilitate them and ultimately break the cycle of addiction. The gross misunderstanding of addiction can, in part, be …show more content…
These two mentalities are now inextricably intertwined and were catalysts for the ‘war on drugs.’ In theory, the war on drugs sounds like a valiant fight, however it has proven to be the least effective way to approach the epidemic of addiction. There is a way, though, to effectively treat and sanction addicts wherein they can be rehabilitated, monitored, and supervised within the system. This way is through the use of a diversionary program known as drug courts. Long-term evaluative research suggests that there has been a significant reduction in recidivism rates for graduates of such programs. The effectiveness of these programs can be felt through each community who has implemented them and can be documented by extensive statistical analyses. Drug courts are effective, community-based, sentencing alternatives that have helped many addicts to break the cycle of addiction and to achieve ongoing recovery from the progressive, fatal, and incurable disease called