Hillary Clinton’s $10 Billion Drug Addiction Treatment Plan
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Hillary Clinton recently proposed a new $10 billion plan for our nation’s current plague, drug addiction. The goal is to treat addicts while curbing incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders. The new plan, mostly funded by the federal government, would also help with the distribution of naloxone to first responders so that more lives can be saved from overdoses. With nearly 23 million Americans suffering from substance abuse issues, could this plan help save our nation? What Does This New Plan Include?Prevention The idea is to not just teach about drugs, but also help educate our youth, families, teachers, coaches, community leaders, mentors, and friends about addiction. The ultimate goal is to ramp up community programs to help prevent children from picking up alcohol and/or drugs at all. Recovery Treatment Although prevention is important, it cannot be the only thing that will help stop addiction. Recovery and treatment are the key ingredients for those suffering from the disease of addiction. Clinton wishes to fully enforce our already existing mental health parity laws so that insurance companies are forced to provide the coverage that is so desperately needed for the full treatment of addiction. Medical Team Make sure that all first responders have access to naloxone – a drug that is used to counteract the overdose effects of opiates. Drug Monitoring Programs Prescribers of any controlled medication are to utilize a state prescription drug monitoring database to ensure that patients are using the medications safely, to decrease the amount of over-prescribed drugs, and prevent the practice of “Doctor shopping”. Drug Court Increase budget for local programs that will help addicts to seek treatment rather than jail time. This will also include medicated treatment practices that many times are not given to addicts struggling with withdrawal (detoxification), as well as medications for underlying mental health disorders in prisons. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recently reported that deaths involving heroin increased from 3,041 in 2008 to 8,260 by 2013. As of now, Clinton cited statistics that showed only 10 percent out of 23 million Americans are even getting treatment for addiction. Clearly there is a need for change in this nation for how we treat the addict and the disease of addiction. But is this the plan to do it? What are your thoughts? Tell us in the comment feed below.
Posted in Blog, Industry News
Tagged 2016 presidency, disease of addiction, drug addiction treatment, heroin epidemic
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