Chasing Heroin Essay

“There are nearly 200,000 inmates in federal prisons, and almost half are drug offenders.” Drug addicts get arrested and thrown in jail, yet weeks later they come out and continue their same habits. This type of cycle is not good for police officers, taxpayers, or the addicts. In “Chasing Heroin,” the PBS program Frontline discusses the heroin epidemic and possible solutions, like the L.E.A.D. program. This program is very flexible and provides statistics on its effectiveness, but is very controversial with how lenient they are towards allowing their patients to continue using. The L.E.A.D. program needs to be provided more funding in order to help spread its comforting and supportive program to more addicts, in order to help them improve their lives.
There were many causes to the epidemic. One of which being opioids were falsely marketed as non addictive drugs, leading them to be over prescribed and creating addicts. These and other painkillers then opened up the flow of heroin;

“Wherever there was a town that had a lot of pill users, [Mexican drug cartels] would set up a store there.” The heroin problem was overlooked, until eventually the number of overdoses and deaths hit a level making it an epidemic; In 2015, “the number of heroin overdoses quadrupled” and “killed more the 27,000 people in a year.” With this extreme increase in addicts who needed help, where were they to go?
In the beginning of the epidemic, addicts would just get arrested and thrown in jail for a short period, then once they got out they continued their addiction.

This cycle was not good for anyone, which was realized by the founders of the L.E.A.D. program. L.E.A.D is a program whose “goal is to reduce overdose, to reduce theft, nuisance, trespassing, and reduce recidivism.” Instead of throwing addicts into jail, L.E.A.D. turned the moment of arrest into an opportunity at a second chance. With that being said, this is something controversial about the L.E.A.D. program, they provide unlimited second chances. A L.E.A.D advisor even told one of her patients that “[y]ou can mess up a thousand times, and the door here would still be open.” This can be found very comforting to addicts who have been forced to try to quit their addictions cold turkey by certain deadlines from other people and programs, but providing endless chances can be found very controversial when trying to find

funding.
The L.E.A.D program has proven to be more effective than some of the other options, like throwing addicts in jail, which is funded by taxpayer dollars. A University of Washington study showed “LEAD participants have a 58% percent lower likelihood of being arrested than addicts outside of the program.” This statistic shows how this program has a better result in making the community safer, and improving addicts lives. One of the L.E.A.D. programs goals is to improve quality of life, which it has been proven to be done for many people.
There needs to be more funding for the L.E.A.D. program to be able to continue to make a difference in people’s lives in a flexible and supportive way. Imagine if one of your loved ones was an addict. Would you rather they were thrown in prison or treated with compassion and motivated towards their personal success?