What Is the Drug Addiction Treatment Act?
Question by laurafisher72: What is the drug addiction treatment act?
Best answer:
Answer by The Hump
most signifcantly, it extends the privilege of drug treatment records beyond that of other medical/mental health records. it makes it almost impossible to discover these records unless you have waiver or a court order. as far as privilege is concerned, junkies are the most protected class in th US. people don’t realize this, but even federal/state criminal law treats drug addicts more favorably than others. so, if a judge ever asks you if you are on drugs you should always say yes. if they offer treatment, take it. it will help you avoid jail or at least get you out sooner.
It is 49 USC 290 dd-2. It is actually a pretty interesting law. the purpose for the extended privilege is actually very legitimate. It is designed to keep from discouraging addicts from getting treatment. the social costs of addiction are very high. 70% of all currently incarcerated felons are incarcerated due to acts they would not have committed but for drug addiction.
atleast another 10% are incarcerated for dealing drugs. so that leaves a very small 20% of all incarcerated people that have committed acts that are wholey unrelated to drug addiction.
most, about 1/2 of the remaining 20%, are professional criminals who consistently cycle in and out of the system (usually doing three to five years each time, and they accept it as an occupational hazzard). About 1 to .5% are actually innocent of the crime for which they have been incarcerated or are mentally ill of a delusional sort and innocent b/c they did not understand the wrongful nature of their action.
Another 2% are sociopathic and/or sadistic, to a degree that makes them un-treatable these are your serial killers and some of the calculated sex offenders. the ones who come up with elaborate systems through which they perpetuate the sex offenses are probably sociopathic/sadistic. these are the guys who molest or even rape their victims and the victim does not even know it has happened. very interesting, but dangerous people. if there is a devil, he is probably a sociopath. (lesser sociopathic/sadists usually do not go to jail for any significant length of time. they are too smart also i am combining the two terms, but they are significantly different. sociopaths are indifferent as to whether they hurt you, and they think everybody else is just like them. once caught they think we (society) beat them at a game and the only difference between us and them is that we won. the key to spotting these folks is that they will use really twisted logic in everyday life, that conspicuously lacks a distinction or consideration between right and wrong. it is something like, “since you have the right to not be killed, i have the right to kill you.” watch out for people who think this way. sadists on-the-other-hand get sexual gratification from violent acts. a person is not necessarilly one just b/c he is the other).
Probably about 2% are incarcerated due completely to one incident in which they lost control over a great emotional upheaval (these are most of the people in for some variety of homicide. they are usually the least violent people in the prison and will die having only killed one person, regardless of whether they remain in prison or are paroled. murderers very rarely kill twice whether they are convicted or not. (I am not talking about serial murderers which are very very rare)).
The people in for armed robbery or gang/race related crimes are far and away, the most violent people in prison. These are the people that will rape you. Usually very angry and in demeanor. Really Really bad people as are sociopathic/sadist, but they lack control. Sociopathic/sadists are usually able to suppress their rage and rarely lose composure (pure evil). the key difference is that the violent gang/race or armed robbery category of offenders usually know they are perpetuating bad acts, but they separate who they are from what they do, and think of themselves as being “soilders” of some sort. The early NWA records reflect their psychi fairly well. What is important is their street credibility. they really never mentally leave prison. they know that any amount of freedom is going to be brief because of the lifestyle they have chosen. they have the belief that others are trying to do to them what they are doing to others, but the difference is, they are correct. the other gang/race armed robbery category offenders are in fact trying to do the same thing to them. the problem is, these are not the people they are in prison for victimizing. it is absolutely absurd. it truly is. b/c part of their lifestyle is to rob people who have money and are vulnerable. these types of offenders are not vulnerable on the street to being robbed. so to get money they have to feed off of people that are not in any way involved in the street/gang life. like your grandma.
1% are in for poverty related theft crimes that are not also due to addiction.
(I have omitted sex offenders b/c sex offenders are a whole sub-class of criminals, and their crimes are very different from other crimes. The likelihood of re-offense is based on separate criteria that in no shape or form even loosely resembles the analysis that applies to other crimes.)
Any way, drug addiction is a huge problem in society, and if we could successfully treat even 1/2 of drug addicts in liue of prosecution, society would be a virtual garden of eden.
What do you think? Answer below!