FROM CRIMINALIZATION TO REHABILITATION: Abandoning “The War on Drugs” THESIS EDIT | Page 3

efforts. This statistic is unsurprising, and will make more sense once a thorough understanding of
the true nature of addiction as a disease has been discussed below.
In some cases, the war on drugs has in fact exacerbated the problem. One example of this
is the prescribing of methadone to long-time addicts. Methadone is a standard tool used by the
administrations leading the war on drugs. As explained by comedian and political activist Russell
Brand in his documentary, “Russell Brand: End the Drugs War” a methadone prescription tends
to cause a drug addict, already suffering with substance abuse, to become addicted to an
additional substance (instead of putting the addict on a path to recovery). According to Brand,
“anyone that’s on methadone... hasn’t been given the opportunity to get into recovery.”
While it is true that, “Methadone, Subutex and other substances can be used to ameliorate
the horror of active addiction to illegal substances,” they should be prescribed only as one part of
a process toward achieving abstinence-based recovery and rehabilitation; a real treatment option,
which needs to be made available to anyone being offered these government-approved
prescriptions.
In this same documentary, Brand interviews journalist Mark Easton, the Home Editor of
BBC News. According to Easton, “there are well over 40,000 people on government treatment
programs who’ve been on methadone for four years or more.” A heartbreaking example of the
methadone myth is Karen (also featured in Brand’s documentary), a woman who had been on
methadone for over 15 years, taking higher and higher doses, who “still topped off every day
with heroin and cocaine.” This kind of methadone use is not u nique to Karen’s circumstances.
It seems obvious to the rational mind that pushing an even more addictive substance onto
a person already suffering from massive troubles with addiction, without offering them a real
way out, is not only counterintuitive, but in fact, it is cruel and lazy on the part our governments.