How the Russians Handle Drug Abuse Patients
The treatment center does not handcuff addicts to their beds anymore. But caged together on double-decker bunks with no way out, they have no choice but to endure the agonies of withdrawal, the first step in a harsh, coercive approach to drug treatment that has gained wide support in Russia. […]
Most experts in drug treatment condemn this approach as a primitive, brutal and ineffective way to address the problem, saying that addiction is a much more complex and intractable challenge and that simply drying out cannot bring a lasting cure.
I’m not so sure that locking someone in a room is the best way to treat addiction. Doesn’t sound like the kind of place where people make good decisions regarding their futures.
“To put someone in handcuffs, it calms them psychologically,” …Let’s take a poll of people that were arrested and ask them if it was a calming experience when they were placed in handcuffs, regardless if they were under the influence of some drug.
It’s called tough love.
That is an old wife’s tale perpetuated on television shows and movies. Supposedly, the key to beating an addition like heroin and cocaine is merely to babysit the addict until they are sober. Yet, addiction treatment specialists have found that dependency on drugs like heroin can persist well into old age, with numerous relapses.
To my untrained eye, this approach seems logical to me. A drunk has to sober up before getting his addiction under control. The handcuffs seem extreme, though.
Russia is scary.