It’s great that Michigan’s gonna require welfare recipients to take drug tests
The legislation will issue mandatory treatment for those who test positive. And that’s fantastic.
But will it be sufficient?
You may be thinking “Wait a second. Jail and being cut off is exactly what we want for those money sucking junkies!” And I get where you’re coming from. But that could also be punishment for what may have well been a life-long addiction in an unfortunate I-didn’t-ask-to-be-born-into-this socioeconomic situation. It’s easy for someone with no concept of addiction or living situations shittier than their own to have compassion for an addict. Some are functional and suffer silently, but many of them are glassy eyed criminals who don’t contribute anything to society.
Why would we want to help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves?
My answer came about a year ago when I met a woman – a recovering addict – who had been born into a family of junkies. She’d been getting high since she was five. (Yes, five.) Can you imagine the effects of a constant chemical on your growing brain? Can you imagine trying to reverse the effects of growing up with that being your only reality and comfort? Your parents – the people you look to for truth – are condoning and championing it (via their example setting). Meanwhile, society says it’s bad. This clash of information isn’t helpful. But you don’t have the experience or wherewithal to know which one’s right. It just creates more confusion and more of a need to reach for the thing that mitigates pain in a nonsensical world.
(By the time you realize Wonderland doesn’t have the answer either, it’s too late. You’re hooked.)
This woman I met fortunately found her way into abstinence based recovery and remained clean for decades after putting down the drugs. She insists there’s no way she would have without the meetings, the program, and a network of people who’d been through addiction. Because of it, she ended up as articulate as she is beautiful inside-out (not an empty compliment; this chick’s got a serenity that glows like radioactive light) – in spite of what should have permanently retarded her brain. And here’s the kicker: she’s sick with a terminal disease and still doesn’t use it as an excuse to revert to being a parasite of society. She goes to work every day and goes to meetings every night to motivate others with her story.
That’s some powerful ass rehabilitation right there.
And that (and this whole long tale) makes me wonder about one bit of the recent legislation:
The treatment.
It sounds excellent at first gander. While welfare recipients suspected of drug use will be required to take a substance abuse test, it’s not as though they’ll get permanently booted from help if they test positive. Even if they refuse to take the test – they’ll only be ineligible for benefits for six months (which I suppose they could spend getting help on their own if they don’t want something official showing up). And those who do test positive get referrals to treatment programs that will help them get clean. From there, they submit periodic tests under the program – and they can have their benefits back as soon as they pass a piss test.
Which I feel is 100% fair and a great start.
But I feel like there may potentially be something missing if all we’re looking at is your run of the mill rehab setup. Some kind of a program – even if it’s not a 12 step one – to retrain addictive proclivities is imperative. You can tell someone to get clean. And they might – for a bit. But unless they have a substitute way of living, it’s just like those lab rats I refer to in any of my “habits” articles. We keep going back to what we know – what’s comfortable, however chaotic its effects are. The “inner work” pom poms I constantly wave aren’t about some woo-woo bullshit. It’s a neuro-scienctific fact that we’re all slaves to even when we’re just trying to quit cheese or chocolate. We need new habits – even if those habits are thought-habits (“Cheese is bad for you. Chocolate’s bad for you. Melting down bath salts and shooting the resultant liquid into your eye is bad for you.”)
And people who have trouble initiating those belief systems (much less maintaining them) need a group of like-minded former junkies to observe winning at life. That way they can help them learn new thought-habits, keep those habits, and (above all) see the benefits of what happens when you do (like that woman I mentioned above; lots of stories like that in recovery). People need reinforcement, motivation, and time to transform. So doing some boot camp level brain renovation for 30 to 90 straight days kick starts our neuroplasticity (brain’s ability to change) into gear, and stamps in those new habits and concepts like “Don’t be an asshole. Drugs make you an asshole. Don’t do drugs. Here’s how.” And what really helps is that inevitably someone whose past matches yours will end up becoming your buddy and helping light the way.
Thus, while latest welfare law may be a great start, I hope they take into account assigning mandatory program meetings. The types that comprise people who share a different and better way of living to those still suffering in the throes of such a suck-ass disease. Because if I were an addict who was suddenly cut from welfare, and my only experience was a life of crime? First, I’d spend the next six month on drugs again. Then – since crime is my only habit onto which I can fall back – that’d be my go-to tool to draw on so I could survive.
Which, I suppose, means I might have to start robbing, slinging, and ending others’ lives to maintain my own.