Columnist Teri Sforza writes about inspiration to reshape California’s approach to addiction treatment, from the experts.
Hey, Gov. Newsom. I’ve been in Dallas with some of the best addiction doctors and researchers in America these last few days. There’s so very much going on here – which we’ll expand on in coming weeks – but we implore you to keep these thoughts at the forefront as California embarks on its plan to spend $6.4 billion helping and housing homeless and mentally ill folks.We can buy the drug that kills more Americans than any other at the grocery store. Legally. Every day of the week.
“Everything right now is opioids, and it’s great we’re trying to prevent overdoses, but alcohol is not gone. Alcohol causes more related deaths than opioid overdoses,” said Dr. Julio Meza, director of UCLA’s Addiction Medicine Fellowship, who we chatted with before the conference began. As a founding partner of the PlumpJack Group, the wine, food and hospitality company that includes three Napa Valley wineries, we hope you’ll take this to heart, Gov. Newsom.Ask folks on the street what addiction treatment is and they’ll say “detox” or “AA.”Detox is designed to remove drugs from the system — best done under the watchful eye of medical professionals, unlike how it’s often done in California, sometimes to tragic results. But that’s only the first tiny step.
And please, don’t mistake sobriety for recovery, the experts cautioned. While the peer support of AA and other 12-step programs can be absolutely essential, they are not in and of themselves recovery. Sobriety is a step on what’s often a life-long road. The 30-60-90-day treatment model so prevalent now — largely because that’s what insurance will pay for — has it all wrong.We need to stop treating addiction like a heart attack and start treating it more like diabetes, the ASAM experts said.
Harm reduction efforts — clean needle exchanges, fentanyl test strip distribution, supervised consumption sites – are often gateways to treatment, the experts said.But a punitive mindset – which sees users as criminals – dictates punishment rather than compassion. It’s important to remember that folks who turn to substances to cope have often endured terrible trauma – and the more trauma they endured as children, the more likely they are to use, SAMHSA has found.
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