# Straight Dope Guru needed - I need input on contrversial drug treatment issues **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 11, 2017, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537 "2017-10-11T03:38:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dirt\_road\_diva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f475e1/32.png) [@dirt\_road\_diva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirt_road_diva)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/1 "2017-10-11T03:38:53Z")
I am at the end of my Certified Addiction Counseling course and have to come up with a controversial issue related to drug abuse TREATMENT for a final paper. I am so burnt out from work, school, and family…my creative side has just taken a vacation without me ☹ please help!! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/2 "2017-10-11T03:54:59Z")
To what extant should people with drug problems be compelled to participate involuntarily in drug treatment programs? ---
**Author:** ![steatopygia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steatopygia/32/3132_2.png) [@steatopygia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steatopygia)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/3 "2017-10-11T03:57:51Z")
[Here’s](https://www.cnbc.com/2016/05/02/fda-may-approve-implantable-drug-to-ease-opiod-withdrawal.html)[a](https://blogs.psychcentral.com/addiction-recovery/2012/06/top-5-most-controversial-addiction-treatments/) [start](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/health/in-demand-in-clinics-and-on-the-street-bupe-can-be-savior-or-menace.html) + a [:eek:](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/24/newt-gingrich-is-the-new-face-of-a-controversial-opioid-addiction-therapy/?utm_term=.cc16635ac85d) ---
**Author:** ![dirt\_road\_diva](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f475e1/32.png) [@dirt\_road\_diva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirt_road_diva)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/4 "2017-10-11T04:01:50Z")
That’s a good one ! thanks! Are you talking about like court mandated? because that’s a double-sided coin there. they talk about it being voluntary … but it’s the only other choice than prison that they have. not much of a choice, huh? on the other hand, it does work for some. ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/5 "2017-10-11T05:07:40Z")
Homeopathy. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/6 "2017-10-11T06:06:39Z")
> [@dirt\_road\_diva](#): > > That’s a good one ! thanks! Are you talking about like court mandated? because that’s a double-sided coin there. they talk about it being voluntary … but it’s the only other choice than prison that they have. not much of a choice, huh? on the other hand, it does work for some. That’s an issue right there. How well do drug treatment programs work when the person did not make the voluntary decision to join it? Other topics: What standards should be set for deciding when a person should be compelled to join a drug treatment program? Can the power to compel somebody to enter a drug treatment program be a government decision or a family decision? Or both? What types of drug treatment should require consent? Do people who are participating in a drug treatment program involuntarily respond differently than people who are participating voluntarily? Should there be a different set of programs? Is mixing voluntary and involuntary participants a good idea or a bad idea? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/7 "2017-10-11T17:03:10Z")
> [@dstarfire](#): > > Homeopathy. This isn’t a debate. This is a scam with a lot of evidence saying it doesn’t work, and a lot of people making money from it and screaming _of course it works STOP BEING MEAN_. Treating it like there’s any debate here is giving it too much credit. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/8 "2017-10-11T18:31:14Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > To what extant should people with drug problems be compelled to participate involuntarily in drug treatment programs? [Here](https://www.revealnews.org/article/they-thought-they-were-going-to-rehab-they-ended-up-in-chicken-plants/) is a story from the public radio program Reveal about how some patients at some residential treatment programs are sent to work (in a chicken processing plant, or a construction firm or a soda bottling plant) as supposed therapy, but in reality are unpaid labor. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/9 "2017-10-11T18:53:58Z")
To what extent should addiction to an addictive drug be treated with addiction to another addictive drug (the most famous is treating heroin addiction with methadone) instead of non-drug treatments? ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/10 "2017-10-11T19:11:09Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > To what extent should addiction to an addictive drug be treated with addiction to another addictive drug (the most famous is treating heroin addiction with methadone) instead of non-drug treatments? That’s a good one. Could also apply to alcohol as well. There’s a lot of controversy as to whether a tapering-off approach works. From personal experience I feel that self-administered tapering is wildly unrealistic, but it seems like a controlled inpatient taper could be doable. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/11 "2017-10-11T19:22:33Z")
Treatment with Ibogaine, LSD and other psychoactive/ hallucinogenic drugs. Bill W, founder of AA, was a proponent of LSD therapy for alcoholism. It was one of the reasons he split with the organization he founded. > **[LSD could help alcoholics stop drinking, AA founder believed](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/aug/23/lsd-help-alcoholics-theory)** > > Author reveals Bill Wilson's acid theory, but his experiments upset other Alcoholics Anonymous members [https://thecanyonmalibu.com/opiate-rehab/ibogaine-controversy/](https://thecanyonmalibu.com/opiate-rehab/ibogaine-controversy/) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/straight-dope-guru-needed-i-need-input-on-contrversial-drug-treatment-issues/798537/12 "2017-10-11T23:25:02Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > That’s an issue right there. How well do drug treatment programs work when the person did not make the voluntary decision to join it? An anecdote from when my father was in treatment for alcoholism. At 3 different treatment centers/programs, they all told me the same thing: no patient ever come in ‘voluntarily’. Either they are forced by court order, or forced by family or employer pressure to seek treatment. One of the issues they have in treatment is the anger & resentment patients have over being ‘forced’ to be there. So they’re used to it. And it doesn’t seem to have much effect on the success of the treatment. Some patients succeed, some don’t; and whether they are there ‘voluntarily’ or not doesn’t seem to correlate with that at all.