Category: drug laws

Top 10 Primer Points for President-elect Trump on Addiction Treatment

Posted on

President-elect Trump takes office in the midst of a devastating opioid epidemic. As he begins to grapple with the causes and solutions of this growing national tragedy, Odyssey House President Dr. Peter Provet offers ten fundamental points to anchor his efforts.

1: Treatment works. But there isn’t enough of it. Approximately 14 percent of Americans with substance abuse problems are able to get the appropriate treatment they need to stop using drugs, maintain a drug-free lifestyle, and be functional – and contributing – members of society, at work, and in the family. This means of the 21.7 million adults and teenagers who are addicted to legal and illegal substances, only 3 million people get the help they need.

2: Addiction does not discriminate. Substance abuse is a health problem that destroys the lives of men and women, young and old, from all ethnic backgrounds and communities. Today’s opioid epidemic is devastating families across the country. Prescription pain reliever overdose deaths among women have increased more than 400 percent from 1999-2010, compared to a 237 percent among men, and the number of deaths from heroin among women tripled from 2010 to 2013. Adolescents are using prescription pain relievers for nonmedical needs in large numbers: in 2015, 276,000 teenagers were current nonmedical users of pain relievers, with 122,000 having an addiction to prescription pain relievers.

3: Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the US. Of the 47,055 lethal overdoses in 2014, opioids claimed the lives of 29,467 Americans, with prescription pain relievers related to 18,893 overdose deaths and heroin 10,574. In all, opioid overdose deaths claim the lives of 91 Americans a day.

4: The tragedy is that a great many of these lives can be saved and for as little as $75 or less. Treatment centers, hospitals, police forces, fire departments, and other community organizations are training their personnel in the use of naloxone – a life-saving, easy-to-administer drug, proven to reverse opioid overdose death. A 2013 survey of organizations who provide naloxone to laypersons who might witness an overdose, including persons who use drugs, their families and friends, and service providers, received reports of 26,463 overdose reversals. The role of naloxone in saving people from a potentially fatal opioid overdose is dramatic: a 160 percent increase in the number of reversals reported; a 243 percent increase in the number of local sites providing naloxone; a 187 percent increase the number of laypersons provided naloxone kits; and a 94 percent increase in states with at least one organization providing naloxone.

5: While the human cost of addiction can be devastating, the financial burden on all Americans is staggering. The US spends more than $700 billion annually in costs related to health care, lost work productivity, and crime. Abuse of illicit drugs alone costs $193 billion.

6: The cost of treatment for substance abuse disorders pales in comparison to the costs of abuse. Publicly-funded, residential treatment administered professionally using evidence-based programs costs $62 a day. In-hospital opioid detox starts at $1,000 a day. In 2012, New York City paid $460 a day to feed, house, and guard each inmate, the majority nonviolent drug offenders.

7: Funding for treatment has not kept up with demand. When the Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Act (CARA) was passed into law in July 2016, it was the most significant federal legislation on addiction treatment in 40 years. CARA received overwhelming bi-partisan support in Congress and the Senate. It was hailed as the most comprehensive effort undertaken to address the opioid epidemic, encompassing all six pillars necessary for such a coordinated response – prevention, treatment, recovery, law enforcement, criminal justice reform, and overdose reversal. But the funding request was drastically reduced from $1Billion to $181Million.

Now we have cause to be hopeful that funding will be restored. Just this month the US House of Representatives passed HR 34, The 21st Century Cures Act. The legislation provides $1Billion over several years to states through the existing grant program for prevention, treatment, prescription drug monitoring programs, opioid treatment programs, and workforce development. The bill creates federal drug courts and programs for alternatives to incarceration for individuals with SUD. It also encourages the integration of care for SUD with primary care.

This landmark legislation – a turning point for addiction treatment and prevention – has now been signed by President Obama.

8: As demand for treatment increases, we are faced with a growing workforce crisis in the addictions field. This crisis is due to a variety of factors, including stigma, an aging workforce, and inadequate compensation.  A report to Congress from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) warned that the addiction services field will need to fill more than 330,000 jobs to keep pace with demand for care.

9: Addiction is a brain disease to be treated, not a criminal justice issue to be punished. A decade or more of scientific research has conclusively shown addiction is a disease that affects both the brain and behavior. Science has identified many of the biological and environmental factors and is beginning to search for the genetic variations that contribute to the development and progression of the disease.

10: Voters in eight states approved passage of marijuana laws ranging from full legalization of recreational use of marijuana to approving or easing of restrictions for medical marijuana laws. These laws will have undoubtedly increase marijuana use – and misuse. Keeping marijuana out of the hands of youth is everyone’s concern.  Ensuring prevention and treatment programs are ready to help those, is everyone’s commitment.

Obama: Drug abuse is a public health issue

Posted on

Odyssey House welcomes President Obama’s position that drug abuse should be treated as a public health problem; that drug policy has been too focused on arrests, incarceration, and interdiction; and that he favors demand reduction but not legalization.

President Obama explained his stances on drug policy during a recent YouTube question-and-answer session.

The President said, “I am not in favor of legalization. I am a strong believer that we have to think more about drugs as a public health problem. When you think about other damaging activities in our society – smoking, drunk driving, making sure you’re wearing seatbelts – typically we’ve made huge strides over the last 20, 30 years by changing people’s attitudes. And on drugs I think that a lot of times we have been so focused on arrest, incarceration, interdiction that we don’t spend as much time thinking about ‘how do we shrink demand?’”

He said he would like to see more resources could go towards drug rehabilitation so that those looking for help from a treatment program do not have to wait for months for assistance, and that there should be a way of steering nonviolent, first-time drug offenders “into the straight and narrow,” through drug courts or similar programs.

Odyssey House has long viewed substance use disorders as a public health issue and offers tailored treatment programs for a diverse range of individuals and families.

National drug czar visits Edgecombe

Posted on

R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), visited the Edgecombe Residential Treatment Facility in Harlem last week. Kerlikowske met with Odyssey House officials and commissioners from the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), Department of Correctional Services, Division of Parole and Division of Criminal Justice Services to discuss alternatives to incarceration for non-violent drug offenders.

Odyssey House strongly supports such measures – last year, we were selected to run the Edgecombe program, which provides intensive services to parole detainees with the aim of returning them to their communities and engaging them in further addiction treatment. Dr. Peter Provet, president and CEO of Odyssey House, said, “Odyssey House is pleased to bring a cutting-edge, intensive clinical intervention to a population at high risk of relapse. Addiction is now recognized as a chronic relapsing disorder – this innovative program is treating relapse instead of punishing it.”

Read the full press release for more on Director Kerlikowske’s visit.

Guest Blogger: Peter Provet responds to NY Times article

Posted on

Today, the New York Times published an article (“To Trim Costs, States Relax Hard Line on Prisons”) on the increasing number of states relying on alternatives to incarceration as a means of cutting costs. Eventually it had to stop. The fact that hard economy reality is leading the charge to change the way we do business in the prison system is an opportunity we can’t afford to miss.

In the article, New York State gets a small mention for its latest attempt to reform the harsh mandatory sentencing laws that have fueled much of the State’s outsize prison costs, but it fails to mention an innovative effort underway to address the most difficult and expensive challenge in the prison system – addicted former inmates who violate parole. In a new program, three of the government agencies involved in criminal justice and addiction (NYS Department of Corrections, NYS Division of Parole, and NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services) are working together with Odyssey House to control costs and improve outcomes for eligible parole violators who, consistent with the pathology of addiction, are at risk of relapsing several times before achieving lasting sobriety.

For decades, drug courts and drug treatment providers have worked together to divert non-violent drug offenders away from prison cells and into treatment. The savings to society are significant – $18,000 per bed for basic long-term treatment, compared to $35,000 average cost of prison, and a return of seven-to-one in reclaimed productivity, for every dollar spent on treatment – but even greater is the saving in individual lives and reunited families.

Guest Blogger: Peter Provet on the Rockefeller drug laws

Posted on

As Governor David Paterson moves to overhaul New York State’s Rockefeller drug laws, legislators, prosecutors, and law enforcement officials need to throw their weight behind an established treatment program that offers so much more than just an alternative to incarceration. The model is long-term, residential, therapeutic community (TC) treatment. Now more than 40 years old, the TC is an established, accredited, and respected treatment of choice for chronic substance abusers recognized by the National Institute on Drug Abuse as well as law enforcement officials, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges. This tested model was developed in New York to both mitigate the harsher elements of our state’s drug laws and it is testament to the treatment model’s success and durability that it is now a national standard for targeting addiction-fueled nonviolent crime.

The TC is not only cheaper than prison (approximately $20,000 per bed, per year), it is more effective in reducing recidivism and helping addicts get and stay sober. Helping addicted individuals improve their education, train for and get a job, find housing, and reunite with family are the bedrock benefits of this adaptable and flexible model. Punishing addicts has cost our State millions – perhaps billions – of dollars for very little in return, while treating addiction saves taxpayers seven to one for every dollar spent. It is incontrovertible that greater justice, individual rehabilitation, and cost savings will result from sentencing reform.

At Odyssey House, we’re closely following the progress of this legislative reform, as is The New York Times, the New York Daily News, and other media outlets.

Peter Provet, Ph.D.
President & Chief Executive Officer
Odyssey House & Odyssey Foundation

Sentencing commission calls for reform

Posted on

The Commission on Sentencing Reform issued its final report yesterday calling for major reforms of New York’s drug laws. The report includes a number of recommendations of significance to Odyssey House, given our new parolee program and resources as a community services provider.

The plan would, among other things, double the existing weight requirements for most major felony drug sale and possession crimes, make many lesser first-time felony drug offenders eligible for probation or a jail term rather than mandatory prison, and expand parole as an option for convicted offenders.

“New York must continue to reserve costly prison resources for high-risk, violent offenders while making greater use of community-based alternatives to incarceration,” the report says.

Odyssey House is a strong proponent of alternatives to incarceration: Our newest program at Edgecombe is designed to provide intensive services to parole detainees with the aim of returning them to their communities and engaging them in further addiction treatment.