The National Institutes of Health shows that 65% of the United States prison population has active substance abuse. Some may believe, “Drug addicts deserve to be imprisoned. They’re awful human beings". Anybody can be an awful human being, but not all drug addicts are. Some may say you can only speak up for the people you know, but we should speak up for the people who can’t. Drug addicts should not be imprisoned, but we should have better mental health and rehab facilities. There are many issues with the system, including one of the biggest factors, money. We are always so worried about the new designer bag, but they’re worried about how they’re going to pay for treatment. Most of us try to keep a social status that would never matter to us in the next 5 years. We need to stop worrying about materialistic things that won’t matter in the long run, but rather focus on people who need help.

Most of us have lived selfishly and in our little bubbles. But the people around us lived in a bubble that corrupted them. They lived in a bubble where they were told this is what they were going to be and they became it. They flourished in this bubble that they became the nightmare they wished they would never become. According to The National Institutes of Health, They reported, “More than a third of adolescents with a report of abuse or neglect will have a substance use disorder before they reach their 18th birthday”. When you’re born, you're not a bad person. You can become the person you were influenced to become because that's all you knew. Sadly in many cases, most drug addicts are ashamed of their addictions. If we send them to prison for the trauma they’ve had in their life, what does that start to say about us? Unfortunately, there are many stories of murders, even pedophiles having a shorter sentence in prison compared to people who have substance abuse issues. 

  Many people who have substance abuse issues struggle with the fact that they are drug addicts. Some of them cannot accept themselves for what they're doing or why they ended up in the shape they’re in. According to Aquila Recovery, they state; “Individuals who are battling substance abuse often feel guilty for their addiction and the pain it's caused to loved ones.”  Not just substance abuse, but we have all experienced guilt and doing something wrong and how it may affect others. But these individuals feel guilty for the trauma that they've had for years and they carry it by trying to escape reality with drugs. They may believe that it helps them, but in reality, it pushes everyone away from them and sadly they know it. Most won’t admit this factor due to the hole they created for themselves. This hole is what someone dug for themselves and they’re not sure if they want help. They may feel they don't deserve help, which is impacted by trauma. 

In prison, you're learning a new way to rehabilitate yourself,  but you're not learning recovery. While you're in prison, you may feel guilty but have no support system.  Some may believe that people who are drug addicts don't deserve a support system but that's a lie. The NIDA statistics claim, “85% of the prison population has an active substance abuse disorder”. While you're in prison you have access to these drugs, but while you're in a rehab facility, as drugs may be in the possession it's very unlikely. When you’re recovering from addiction you cannot be around what’s causing your addiction. Science has taught us, “Stress cues linked to drug use, such as; people, places, things, and moods. Are the most common triggers for relapse.”  In rehab facilities they let you know that you're not alone in this battle, as people may not understand you. But they try to understand you and help you in many ways that prison could not help others.  When you're in prison it feels like a punishment and they're already punishing themselves for the awful things that they've done while being on drugs. 

While going into prison, you’re not learning to stay clean, but to punish yourself. They are people who have gone to prison and have created awful events for others, but that’s what most people talk about. A topic we should talk more about is people who genuinely want help. Many people are in the system and stay because of what they're influenced by. Many people have already chosen what's going to happen to them due to their childhood. If someone is being told they’re just like their mother, and their mother is a drug addict, this leaves an impact on them and who they are as a person. They may believe that they will never be able to find stable and substantial growth. Many people may stop treatment plans that they are going through because they're not ready.  there are many times when people are forced into interventions and are supposed to feel guilty for the way that they have been acting and treating people just to get help.  this damages their self-esteem and they're doing it for other people and not themselves.
We often listen to what other people say because they're an outside perspective. As humans, we value people's opinions who are close to us. When they reply with negative feedback we are consumed with guilt. Most addicts don’t just feel guilty for no reason. They also can feel guilt with relapses. Some people believe if someone relapses on drugs the treatment has failed. This isn’t the case though. This just means that we need to do more research on what is working and what is not. People can easily give up on addicts because they don't see them getting out of the hole that they created. According to the NIDA, “Some people relapse or return to drug use after an attempt to stop, which can be part of the process”.  This is fairly common with the first step of recovery.

  When you first start to recover it's never guaranteed that you'll be able to do it on the first try, but with better systems, tests, and research hopefully shortly we will be able to help people who can't help themselves. Anybody deserves help no matter what they've done and what has happened to them. As their actions may have caused people pain they still deserve justice for themselves. Individuals deserve to know that they are cared about and they are loved.  They shouldn't have to worry about money, insurance, or any other factors that may make it hard for the people who are struggling to receive help. But at the end of the day, we can change this. We don’t need to enable the system, but instead, people as individuals can help make the change. The people who don’t understand are putting people in prison for drugs, but we can't forget the trauma that they've been through. Expectations that others project onto individuals slowly destroy them. People deserve to know that they have futures and they won't turn out like how people expected them to be. Anybody can break the cycle because anything is possible.