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Impact of Criminal Justice System Coercion on Drug Abuse Treatment. David Duncan 1 , John B. White 2 , Thomas Nicholson 2. 1 Duncan & Associates 2 Western Kentucky University. Former NIDA Director Robert Dupont.
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Impact of Criminal Justice System Coercion on Drug Abuse Treatment David Duncan1, John B. White2, Thomas Nicholson2 1 Duncan & Associates 2 Western Kentucky University
Former NIDA Director Robert Dupont • Reducing penalties for drug possession and sales reduces the pressure on addicts to stop using drugs. As such it is an enabling step . . . What is needed is not a lesser or eliminated penalties, but strategies to make the penalties for possession and sale of illicit drugs more effective and less costly to society.
And… • Removing penalties for drug sale and possession is surrendering to the illicit drug epidemic. • (Dupont, 1997, p. 438)
Sher Horosko (1997) • Most of us here believe that substance abuse is a disease. But how many of us also believe that criminal sanctions — proven to be the number one catalyst for getting people into treatment — are the only or the best incentive to human healing we can provide.
Con’t… • There is a belief in our field that the threat of punishment and the attendant loss of freedom, family, and friends is acceptable, even laudable, to force a person into his or her own recovery . . . The elders in our field have come to accept this coercive catalyst as necessary.
Effects of Coercion: • Does such coercion bring a large proportion of patients into treatment • Are coerced patients different from those who enter treatment without legal coercion?
Further: • Does coercion bring a larger proportion of heroin and other more “hard core” abusers into treatment? • Does coercion bring patients into treatment at an earlier stage in their history of abuse?
Treatment Episode Data System • Is a continuation of the former Client Data System (CDS) that was originally developed by the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration • The TEDS data collection effort began in 1989 with three-year development grants to states. • Treatment providers that receive any state agency funding are expected to provide TEDS data for all clients admitted to treatment, regardless of the source of funding for individual clients. • http://webapp.icpsr.umich.edu/cocoon/ICPSR-SERIES/00056.xml
Description of Sample • 20.5 million • 1992-2003 • Concatenated dataset • Covers all 50 States and Puerto Rico