Building a Community Infrastructure for Substance Abuse Recovery

By David Palmer

Voters in New Hampshire, the early primary state for presidential candidates, are concerned about the nation’s growing drug abuse problem and its impact on their communities. They want something done. An Associated Press article in Little Rock’s Democrat Gazette reported that “in town halls and ‘meet and greets’ in Iowa and New Hampshire, voters are using their access to presidential hopefuls to raise painful and often deeply personal concerns about drug abuse.” And they are getting a response. Republican candidate Carly Fiorina speaks about a step daughter lost to drug addiction, and Chris Christie, who lost a friend to drugs, claims an interest in further developing drug courts that mandate treatment over incarceration for non violent offenders.

Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, says she’s laid out a $10 billion plan that promotes treatment over incarceration and gives law enforcement agencies better access to overdose reversal drugs. Doesn’t sound promising. I don’t want to discourage the efforts of candidates interested in reducing drug dependency and abuse but caution that federal government programs have been largely ineffective in this area. Faith based programs work best. The fact is, as a nation, we have been trying to limit the supply of drugs at great cost since 1920 when the federal government passed the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution making the consumption of alcohol illegal. “Prohibition” lasted 13 years and actually increased the nation’s appetite for alcohol. In 1933, Congress gave up, and, with the passage of the 21^st amendment, repealed the 18^th amendment. America went back to legal drinking.

Then, barely two years later, two alcoholics, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, found an answer to the alcohol problem. They called it Alcoholics Anonymous. It was biblically based and God centered, and it caught on. Over the next 80 years, millions sobered up with the help of AA, including me, and there are today over 115,000 regular meetings worldwide including 400 a week in Little Rock. It was a triumph of faith over government. The availability of drugs is certainly a factor in levels of addiction, and we favor reducing the supply of drugs where possible through national and local law enforcement. But the main focus, we submit, should be on reducing demand through treatment of mental health problems, anxiety and depression, for example, treatment for addictions to alcohol and other drugs, and the adoption of a Christ-centered style of living.

The stakes are high. In his book, “High Society,” Joseph A. Califano, Jr. describes in detail what we are up against with the nation’s “trillion dollar” a year drug habit. Califano, founder of New York’s Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), says, “On any given day 100 million Americans (one third of the population) are taking some stimulant, antidepressant, tranquilizer, or painkiller; smoking; inhaling from aerosol cans or glue bottles; or self medicating with alcohol or illegal substances like marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, hallucinogens, Ecstasy, and other designer drugs.” The federal government-sponsored “war on drugs” conducted by its agencies and focused on limiting the supply of drugs has been a costly failure and the recent emergence of powerful designer drugs marketed on the Internet makes “a war” even more hopeless and dangerous. We must focus on reducing demand.

Part of the answer lies in cultivating the strength of individual communities. During World War II, which I observed as a teenager, most communities, mine included (Summit, N.J.), organized themselves to meet the challenges of the home front. And so it is with overcoming the burden of drugs. Individual communities should create a community infrastructure of recovery to meet the need. It should consist of the following elements:           

• Hospitals able to treat mental health problems (i.e. anxiety, depression, PTSD).            
• “Treatment” facilities focusing on the treatment of addictions and offering detox services.           
•  Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12 Step programs like Narcotics Anonymous and Cocaine Anonymous which first introduced the concept of “a power greater than ourselves”.
• Christian churches and other Christ-centered organizations (i.e. Salvation Army, Union Rescue Mission) which address addictions as part of an overall “sin problem.”
• Transitional housing, strictly regulated locally, to help those seeking recovery make the adjustment from treatment to the demands of the real world.
• Special programs focusing on teens, veterans and prison inmates, populations which have higher instances of drug abuse than the general public.
• Focused law enforcement and courts and prison systems that collaborate on helping inmates get well within the bounds of public safety.
• Job-generating companies which find ways to channel the special talents of lawbreakers, who tend to be entrepreneurial, into positive pursuits.
• We began this mission of recovery at our non-profit company, One Day at a Time, more than ten years ago with a quarterly publication and small website.

We have since published a book, “Pathways to Serenity. Overcoming your addictions one day at a time,” which is available on Amazon in print, digital and audio versions, expanded our website and established a Facebook presence. And now we, at One Day at a Time, have begun to mobilize the substantial assets of our community in our freedom from drugs initiative which is comprehensive and rooted in our Christian faith. We have named it “The Roundtable,” evoking, as it does, positive feelings of compassion, steadfastness, courage, honor, chivalry and nobility. The 12^th century roundtable had 12 members, and we will begin with that. Members will represent Christian churches, hospitals, schools, businesses, prison systems, veterans groups, lawyers, legislators and others. Some will be in recovery themselves. All will be dedicated to promoting healthier individuals, families and communities.