Narconon PSA  

If you have a drug addict in the family get them into treatment now or chances are, they will wind up in prison.

United States has the highest number of citizens locked up per capita than any other country in the world. The greater percentage of those locked up are in prison because of drugs. We continue to fail our citizens when we lock them up for falling into a trap that is sometimes easier to fall into than to avoid.

When more people are searching the web for basic ways to cook methamphetamine and meth recipes than healthy diets, and prescription drugs are simple to obtain illegally on line, we have a problem. And 7.2 million Americans will be incarcerated this year for lack of real answers to the problem.

An estimated 45 billion dollars will be spent on prisons this year in the US without a raised eyebrow from most politicians or taxpayers.

According to Join Together Tim Lynch of the Cato Institute states that the latest figures "demonstrate that we have lost our way when our laws require such a massive amount of incarceration."

"When you lock up a bank robber, a child molester or a mugger, you're removing a career offender from the street. When you lock up a drug dealer, he is immediately replaced. We tried this with alcohol during Prohibition and it didn't work."

There is hope though. Studies show that increases in admission to substance abuse treatment are associated with reductions in crime and incarceration rates. Our citizens are safest when there is effective treatment available.

The obvious solution is effective drug treatment. It is the only alternative to incarceration. Whether the incarceration is impending or the offender is not yet on the radar screen, any drug abuser is on a high speed highway to jail unless they are stopped by someone other than a cop.

If you know someone who is abusing drugs get them into rehab. Don't count on them to do it themselves – they need your help.