The mentality of "In a perfect world every addict would get treatment" is inefficient

The mentality of "In a perfect world every addict would get treatment" is inefficient and unproductive. What we need is a realistic approach for the real world. <br><br>Back in 2017 in Henniker, New Hampshire two guys got off of a Greyhound bus and they were both strung out. One of them, the more lucid of the two, went into the local Cumberland Farms. He walked up to the clerk working the cash register at 1:30am and said: <br><br>"Listen, I would never do this to anyone, but I am desperate. I am going to rob you, but I am going to tell you my story because I know that you will be shaken by this and won't want to think about it later, and if you don't call the police that would be incredibly kind of you. I'm not going to hurt you or the other customers. I'm just going to take the money. Please do not call the police. <br><br>I met him in the parking lot of the acton mall about a year ago and we hit it off immediately. His getting clean, I'm not. We are in love. That's why we are on this bus, we are moving to New Hampshire. He's got a job lined up up here, I don't. But that's fine, I'll find one. The problem is that he does not know I am still using. <br><br>I took a couple of tests this week. I was terrified they would find out and not let him start working. But the tests came back negative. I've been sober for two days. I took a couple of pills and a half of a scoop of xanax to get on the bus, but that was it. I took one more xanax on the bus a few hours ago to keep myself from being too jittery. <br><br>We are going to go to treatment tomorrow morning. We were going to go today but we came in late, so we will go first thing in the morning. But he's withdrawing, and he's in pain. I have to get some heroin to him. He's parked in your parking lot, in the car we borrowed from a friend. So here is the situation. If I steal your money, I will buy heroin from the guy across the street, it will take less than 5 minutes, he will never know. If I get caught, he'll never know and I'll be arrested for it. <br><br>If I do not steal from you, he will find out that I am still using. He'll never trust me again, and we will split up. If he finds out that I am still using then he will also have to know that I am doing this.<br><br>In either situation, my addiction is keeping me from getting help. 3 hours ago, my only priority was getting here in one piece and finding treatment. That is all I wanted. But the sickness has other plans. If I do not get him that fix, then he will find out that I am still using. If I do not get him that fix, two recovering addicts will split up. Having been in the same situation, I can tell you that it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for him to ever trust me again. The trust is built around getting clean together. <br><br>So here's what's going to happen. You see me rob you, the other customers see me rob you, you call 911 and describe me. The police will come and find us in the parking lot with the money and the heroin, and now not one but TWO recovering addicts are going to go to jail. And they will be separated. Jail is not treatment. Now two recovering addicts are separated and one has been busted for stealing and the other has been busted for possession. I have a warrant out in Massachusetts, so I'll be going straight to jail. <br><br>They are both going to go home from jail and relapse. They are both going to be addicted, and they are both going to be alone. I won't get treatment, he won't get treatment, and what I am doing now, because I am desperate, is keeping us from getting help.<br><br>In a perfect world, we would have both gotten treatment. In the real world, I am robbing you." <br><br>That was the story that he told. The clerk was shaken up and decided not to call the police, and they were able to get that fix for the night. I have no idea if they ever went to treatment. I doubt that they stayed clean, but who knows. What I DO know is that addiction is an illness and it ruins lives. I don't know the proper way to fix it, the best approach to help people, but I do know it's inefficient to simply say "In a perfect world, every addict would get treatment" and then shrug. <br><br>When I got clean, it was what I wanted. But my sister, who has been to treatment 6 times, is not clean, and she does not want to be. When she WAS clean, she wanted to be clean. She relapsed, and the addictive illness took over. Now she does not want to be clean. We can't just put her in treatment because treatment only works if the addict wants to be treated. <br><br>Back in the 1920s, they thought heroin was the cure for morphine addiction. It wasn't until the 1950s that heroin was made illegal. For 30 years heroin addicts were able to go into treatment centers and get treated without the law getting in the way. How well did that work? Not a single heroin addict was cured. <br><br>Recovery from addiction is an unsolved issue, and saying "in a perfect world every addict would get treatment" is saying that you don't understand a single thing about addiction. <br><br>Please understand that addicts need treatment, and then get to work finding solutions.