"While Walter provides history and plenty of politics and policy detail, she does it through individual stories: a doctor who bends the rules as he tries to fight the system, a White middle-class young man who gets treatment in lieu of jail time but then learns that the facility - which forces him into hard labor - may be even worse, and a Black woman who gets no such option and is sent to jail."
"If we really want to build a system that is going to help, then we need to understand what's not working about our current system and how we could potentially fix it. Personal responsibility and willpower matter, but the research shows that the feeling of having control over your own life is super-important for someone trying to enter recovery. If people don't have access to the resources they need to make a change in their lives - housing, jobs, food, commun"
Decades of misguided drug laws prevented doctors from helping addicts and created a punitive system that often prioritizes punishment over treatment. For-profit actors and executives profit from addicts' suffering, exploiting families and survivors. Outcomes differ by race and class: some White middle-class individuals receive court-ordered treatment that can involve forced labor, while many Black people face incarceration without access to treatment. Families seeking accountability encounter deep obstacles within California's system, including resistance from treatment centers implicated in deaths. Recovery requires more than willpower; a sense of control and access to housing, jobs, food, and community resources are essential for successful rehabilitation.
Read at The Mercury News
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