Drug abuse in America has swelled over the past year with the pandemic and even over the past decade whether you look at opioids or heroin or prescription medicine, substance abuse has ballooned in America to the tragic levels we see today. Drug overdose deaths have more than tripled since 1990. Almost 21 million Americans have at least one addiction, yet only 10% of them receive treatment.

But if so many people need treatment for drug abuse, why are so few receiving this treatment? Rehab is crucial to the lives of millions of people but so few are able to actually receive treatment. Drug abuse centers have the potential to change the lives of millions who suffer from addiction, but does it?

The main issues with drug treatment are it is not accessible, not affordable, and not successful.

But if the drug treatment and rehab industry making a $42 billion profit per year, how could the treatment center be unsuccessful?

In America, there is no national standard for addiction treatment with very few regulations regarding addiction treatment. On top of the few regulations, there is also relatively no enforcement of the few standards that are in place meaning that there is no accountability for facilities that provide treatment that does not meet the medical standard for effective addiction treatment and some facilities provide treatments with little to no scientific backing, like equine therapy.

The rehab centers also frequently use treatments that are outdated and treatments from decades ago despite the considerable scientific advancements that have been made in the research of addiction. The reason that facilities continue to use these outdated treatments is that there is accountability or incentive to improve and expand and adapt these new more effective treatments which can be difficult or costly to implement; meaning if a rehab center is already financially successful then there is no incentive to update to more effective rehab.

The minimal regulations also mean that rehab centers have the ability to increase the cost with expensive treatments with little scientific backing. Typical inpatient care is extraordinarily expensive and the high cost of rehab means that many families are unable to afford treatment past 30 days. Because the cost is so high and people are unable to stay past 30 days, this short-term care is shown to reduce the success rates of the patients. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, research shows that 3 months of treatment is required to reduce and stop addiction. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that in 2018 314,000 people in the US needed addiction treatment but were unable to get this treatment because they didn’t have the health coverage to afford the substantial price tag of these facilities. 100,000 people in 2018 weren’t treated, not because they didn’t have health coverage, but because their health care could not cover the cost of treatment at all or didn’t cover the full cost.

The unregulated nature of the drug rehab centers means that these facilities are able to mark up the cost of patient care using expensive and outdated treatments like equine therapy with little to no scientific backing and the price tag means that people are unable to complete the program or access addiction programs causing sufferers to go untreated or leaves patients more susceptible to relapse.

The lack of a regulating body to monitor and hold treatment centers accountable for the care of their patients is ruining lives and damaging our society. People in the United States go to rehab for medical care, for help to better their lives, and the places they are sent can be difficult to access physically and financially and once they overcome that hurdle, the care they receive is not bound to any standards for treatment, our society has abandoned these sufferers. There are no federal standards for counseling practices or rehab treatments which gives these facilities free rein to mark up prices for treatment with little scientific backing and there is no one to stop this which has made rehab an extremely profitable industry at the expense of people’s lives. Our current addiction treatment system has failed disastrously as shown by the rates of addiction are rising and the average age people become addicted is dropping and we must create national standards for this type of medical treatment and they must be enforced.

One solution is that the national government should create a standard for what qualifies as rehab treatment and hold rehab centers to this standard. If the government is responsible for the oversight of treatment facilities then they will be accountable for the failures of treatment centers. The numerous stories of inadequate medical care in rehab facilities leading to deaths of patients will drop because the government will be held accountable meaning they will be incentivized to hold rehab centers accountable. If national legislation is created to establish restrictions on whether or not an addiction treatment facility can actually call itself a rehab center and treat patients then this will cause rehab centers to focus more on meeting standard care rather than keeping treatments that are outdated but cheap so they can make the most money. Treatment centers that are financially stable and feel no need to update the treatments because it would be expensive or difficult to install would now be required to treat patients with care that is consistent with research and studies of effective treatments rather than the extremely outdated treatments which are still in place in many rehab centers.

Millions of people in America need addiction treatment but are unable to access this treatment because of the inflated cost which has been compounded by the lack of standards of care for the industry and the care they receive is inadequate and ineffective because of the outdated treatments which continue because of the lack of oversight. Drug addiction has been rising substantially in the last decade and it is expected to skyrocket because of the Covid-19 pandemic which causes significant stress and social isolation as well as many of the other risk factors associated with becoming addicted and relapsing. The system is in drastic need of oversight and regulations because this addiction pandemic has been building for decades and can not be fixed with a simple vaccine but rather by creating ways for people to receive the proper help and care that they need before it’s too late

Written By: Sarah Frishman