Addiction to drugs is a difficult thing for an individual to deal with. A drug addiction leads to a decline in a person’s well-being, financial security, and social life. Drug addicts have a hard time keeping a job, a family, and most of the time they are in trouble with the law and homeless on the street. Today most Americans still view drug addiction as a serious crisis just as they did a decade ago. What’s changed, however, is the way that most Americans believe we should handle the crisis. A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, which made telephone interviews with 1, 821 adults and is the first large survey of American opinions on drug policies in 13 years. The survey showed that Americans are starting to change the way they …show more content…
The Drug Treatment Alternative to Prison (DTAP) program in Brooklyn New York allows alcohol or drug addicted defendants to plead guilty to nonviolent charges that may have occurred from drug related activity or drug use. The defendant is then put into a residential, therapeutic community treatment system that can last up to 2 years as an alternative to a prison sentence. A recent evaluation of DTAP by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse found that the program has achieved significant results in reducing recidivism and drug abuse. The evaluation also revealed an increase in the likelihood of finding employment for Addicts after completion of the program. Along with these results, the evaluation found that the average cost of placing a participant in DTAP, including all costs was $32,974—half the average cost of $64,338 if the participant had been sentenced to serve the average term of imprisonment. If rehab was even one penny lower, it would make sense for tax payers’ dollars to be spent on providing help to those in need of rehab. By sending an addict to rehab, it gives them the best shot at another chance in life. No unmotivated prisoner will ever receive that from