Why the Legislature Needs a Psychiatrist

By Ed Gogek, MD

When I tell people I’m a psychiatrist running for state senate, they often laugh and say that’s exactly what the legislature needs. But they’re actually right, and for a serious reason. For twenty years one of my specialties has been substance abuse. It’s important to help these patients, but this work also matters because the addicts and alcoholics I see cause so many problems—problems the legislature could prevent.

Crime is one of the biggest problems they cause. Dozens of studies show that between 75 – 85 percent of all crime—including violent crime and property crime—is caused by substance abuse. Just recently in the news, crystal meth has been linked to identity theft. Some tweekers spend all day stealing credit cards and all night at their computers. Often they commit hundreds of crimes per year.

Criminals should be locked up, but that’s not enough because the reality is almost all inmates eventually get out. The average stay in Arizona’s prisons is three years, and the time is far shorter in jail. Without treatment, most go right back to drugs and alcohol, and right back to crime. But with treatment, most stay clean and sober, find jobs and obey the law.

In New York, a follow-up study showed 47 percent of criminals on probation were convicted of another crime within three years, but the rate was only 13 percent for those in drug court. Drug court is a one-year treatment program administered by a judge who can send participants back to jail or prison if they don’t cooperate. That big stick hanging over their heads is one reason forced treatment works so well. In another study in Texas, 49 percent of probationers were rearrested, but that dropped to 16 percent if they went through drug court. Jail and prison is only a temporary fix, but when they get clean and sober, the crime stops for good.
And when we stop the revolving door of addicted criminals going in and out of jail and prison, we save money. A Rand Corporation study found that for every dollar spent on forced treatment, society saves $7 on jails and prisons, lower health care costs, and better workplace productivity.

This is a total win-win. It’s the best way to reduce crime and it saves money instead of costing us.

It’s a myth that addicts must want treatment for it to work. Research shows that forced treatment works better than so-called voluntary treatment, because after several months addicts who were dragged kicking and screaming begin to realize it’s a better way to live.

Arizona does well with forced treatment. We have drug courts for certain non-violent offenders, and under our Governor, we’ve expanded in-prison rehab. But too many addicted criminals still go untreated, and so they go right back to lives of addiction and crime.

I have a specific legislative plan I’ll introduce if I’m elected to the senate: we will screen every convicted criminal for substance abuse and, if they have a problem, they will get one year of treatment—either in prison or on probation. And if the research is right, we will cut crime by 40 percent (find this one) and save huge amounts of money other states are spending to build new jails and prisons.

This idea isn’t new. Clinton’s 1994 crime bill offered states money for forced treatment of criminal addicts. And two years ago the National Drug Court Institute, with White House support, published recommendations to the states on how to handle criminal addicts. The report said, “A drug offender should not be permitted to exit the criminal justice system until he or she has undergone an assessment and an appropriate form of treatment.”

Forced treatment is the best way to cut crime and it saves money. So why aren’t we doing it? Because since 1994, we’ve had one-party rule by politicians who only like partisan issues. And a drug policy focused more on Bolivia and Afghanistan than the addicts and alcoholics here at home. But the main cause is a state legislature that doesn’t understand the huge role addiction plays in more than a dozen social problems, especially crime.

And that’s why it’s no joke that our state legislature really needs a psychiatrist.

Ed Gogek is a candidate for state senate in District 4

When it comes to addiction, too many of our legislators are behind the curve of problem apa and understanding.

This should have been done 10 year ago. Commissions under both presidents bush urged states to treat every addicted criminal. The Clinton crime bill even appropriated money. but states lagged behind because our legislators don’t understand addiction. That’s why we need a psychiatrist in the senate.

The incumbent in this race made him self infamous for her culture of corruption comment re another candidate’s kid. But he has it backwards. Addiction is not a symptom of immorality. This is the same mistake docs made 20 years ago insisting it was a symptom of neurosis, and I stood alone saying no. Immorality stems from addiction. Treat the addiction and immoral behavior stops. Bad people quit being bad. My aim is to develop a culture of recovery, in which everyone knows that addiction and alcoholism are completely treatable and that every addict is happier in recovery—that knowledge is why I never let up on an addict. A world in which we would no more allow a friend or family member to leave his addiction untreated than we’d let them leave epilepsy untreated. When we see people around us every day going from painful lives of addiction to years of long term recovery, we will be on our way to eliminating this disease that causes so much trouble.

List the 18 problems it causes.

Next article is about the family and family breakdown. And the specific plan is

Then abortion which tears the country apart. That laws against it don’t work. But addiction treatment does.