Cheaper and less risky to just stay on the crap.

One group of patients that I see do well are the patients who got hooked after a major medical problem and long hospitalization. Many will just withdraw and stay off without treatment.

No detox is worth the while if there isn’t a promising plan to stay clean afterwards. All this detoxing of people who present to the ER without a plan is a waste of money. Especially the crack addicts, who don’t need medical detox anyway. They come in when crashing, and sign out when the craving cranks up within a couple of days. Why not just say “No” up front unless they make and commit to a specific aftercare program in the first place–and not the same one they have signed onto 15 times in the past.

Crack addicts who maintain their desire to quit long enough to make and keep an appointment–even if it is only 24 hours between the making and the keeping, do much better. Just my experience but the difference is marked.

So they can show their “parole officer” or any equivalent entity, that they are trying to follow court orders? So they can continue getting their priviledges and perhaps jeopardize the life of other peaceful-life-loving individuals???

Of course that begs the question of why detox opiate addicts at all when only a tiny percentage maintain any meaningful sobiety afterwards.