I agree. Rehabilitation not incarceration. Check with the local NA groups and area social services.
Good luck and thanks for trying to help.

Prison IS the answer for crimes committed during the course of drug addiction. Let the people do the time for their crimes…this is part of 4th Step…and rehab while they are in prison.

Young people are so bored and with drugs easily available, it’s no mystery why they use. Also with so many celebrities partying and on drugs, even if some die or mess up their lives, they represent an ideal for young people. And with the flood of information on the internet, young people just aren’t that scared of drugs much.

The key is to catch them before they get caught up in drugs. It’s horrible to say but the addicts are mostly a hopeless cause. You won’t affect a large percentage because they have to want to quit. But you’ve got a good chance of affecting a large number of non-addicts by scaring them with real information on drugs and their consequences.

An addict is mostly not going to care if you try to scare him/her off drugs. He/she is going right back to the pipe or needle or line as soon as you’re finished preaching. Most addicts are on a rampage of destruction and nothing can stop them until they’ve destroyed everything.

The non-addict is likely going to listen to how his/her life will quickly get wasted if they get hooked. You want to get those in an audience or one-on-one and tell them all about drugs and then scare the pants off them. Use your son and other recovering addicts to help by sharing their scary stories. Get yourself and your husband to tell how it all affected your lives too. Teach them to stay scared of drugs and those who use thenm. That will really make a difference.