The Canyon

The other day, we started talking about drug trafficking and how your drug addiction and drug use in general in the United States is causing the deaths of  thousands each year. We are looking at a specific case, Culiacan in Sinaloa, Mexico, and the violence that occurs daily due to United States drug use and addiction.

How the Government Fights Drug Trafficking… Sort Of

Every Mexican president that has come to power in the last couple of decades has claimed to want to fight drug trafficking and the resulting violence. According to Manual Ortiz at the San Diego New Network, each president has even incarcerated a few drug bosses, but this has only serve to assist the drug bosses remaining on the street and exacerbate the problem. In essence, the Mexican government is in support of drug trafficking, though the specific bosses and cartels backed changes with each new president.

Drug Trafficking and Poverty

The only people making money of drug trafficking is the drug bosses. The government puts its support and money behind the drug cartels and not the people, so education suffers. As a result, an extreme and polarized society occurs with the rich and violent drug cartel on one side and everyone else living in poverty and no hope of escaping it. Locals depressed by the outlook and with regular access to drugs end up becoming drug addicts themselves.

The War on Drug Trafficking

While Reagan declared a War on Drugs in the ‘80s and flooded the public school systems and television air waves with public service announcements about the effects of drugs, President Felipe Calderon, the current president of Mexico, declared a war on drug trafficking in December, 2006.

Since that time, it is being reported that about 16,000 people have been killed due to the ongoing war between cartels and authorities and infighting between the cartels. Every year the violence increases: 2009 was the most violent year yet with 7724 murders.

Calderon has his own media Reagan-style media blitz, but his commercials are focused on his “successes.” According to advertising, the government is winning the war against drug trafficking and the violence and deaths are proof.

Many disagree with the government’s bright view. They say that more focus should be placed on money laundering and that while it’s true that some drug cartels are crumbling, others are allowed to prosper and grow.  Culiacan is home to a number of laundering houses where bags are passed through windows and big trucks drive in and out of the town rather openly. It’s no secret.

Edgardo Buscaglia is a United Nations expert on security and organized crime said:  “I would like to see Mexico also strike at the Sinaloa Confederation. That has not, up to now, produced the number of arrests and sentences that have been occurred in other criminal organizations, like those of the Beltrán Leyva, La Familia Michoacana, Los Zetas and the Golfo cartel… Let’s hit everyone evenly.”

How You Can Help

While you, in your home, can do little by yourself to effect great change in Mexico and other drug trafficking regions that serve the United States, recognizing that there’s no such thing as harmless drug use is a step. If you continue to actively live with heroin addiction, cocaine addiction and marijuana addiction without getting the treatment you need to walk away from drugs forever, you are helping to keep drug trafficking and violence alive. By choosing heroin addiction treatment, cocaine detox and marijuana rehab, you are, in effect, doing your part to take away the demand for the drugs that keeps drug trafficking alive.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) has released their first draft. In this new version of the American Psychiatric Association document used by virtually everyone to diagnose behavioral health problems, the disease categories for substance abuse and dependence will be replaced with a brand new “addictions and related disorders” category.

Why The Categorization of Drug Addiction is Changing

The hope of the American Psychiatric Association has for making this change is that it will create a clearer line between those who are physically dependent upon a prescription drug and those who are addicted to their drug of choice.

In a press release, the APA stated: “Eliminating the category of dependence will better differentiate between the compulsive drug-seeking behavior of addiction and normal responses of tolerance and withdrawal that some patients experience when using prescribed medications that affect the central nervous system.”

Their point is that many people will develop a physical dependence upon a drug during the course of treatment, but that this singular fact does not make them a drug addict. When it is appropriate for their treatment, they can simply cut back on their dose slowly under their doctor’s supervision and stop taking the drug completely and without incident.

Someone suffering from drug addiction will find this simple exit plan from their drug of choice to be impossible. The psychological addiction and cravings are the defining characteristic of drug addiction and it is this distinction that the APA would like to make in the new DSM-V.

How the Categorization of Drug Addiction is Changing in the DSM-V

One of the biggest changes is the new category that will include substance-use disorders. Each drug type will get its own category with its own diagnostic criteria. Not much will change in terms of diagnostic criteria except that “drug craving” will be added and “problems with law enforcement will be dropped.” As the APA points out, “cultural considerations… make the criteria difficult to apply internationally.”

Cannabis withdrawal criteria is also a new addiction to the DSM-V. The APA says it occurs with the “cessation of cannabis use that has been heavy and prolonged,” results in “clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” Some listed symptoms of marijuana withdrawal include irritability, anxiety, anger, weight loss/ decreased appetite, insomnia, depression, and physical symptoms like sweating, fever, headache, et cetera. At least three of these need be present to diagnose marijuana withdrawal, according to the new DSM-V.

Why The Categorization of Drug Addiction Matters

For many, insurance is the only way to pay for drug and alcohol rehab. If the problem is not categorized as a medical issue that requires medical treatment, then insurance companies may start rejecting claims that request coverage for drug and alcohol detox treatment and medications. As these are both necessary for recovery and typically very expensive, it’s important that their classification be as clear as possible.

Charles O’Brien, M.D., Ph.D., is the chair of the APA’s DSM  Substance-Related Disorders Work Group. He says: “The term dependence is misleading, because people confuse it with addiction, when in fact the tolerance and withdrawal patients experience are very normal responses to prescribed medications that affect the central nervous system.

“On the other hand, addiction is compulsive drug- seeking behavior which is quite different. We hope that this new classification will help end this wide-spread misunderstanding.”

Gladys Lillas, of New Zealand, was notorious for her drinking habit. Often drunk, Lillas would walk and dance in traffic, forcing cars to swerve out of the way to avoid her. Many an accident was narrowly missed due to her antics, and the local courts finally decided recently that enough is enough: they forcing Lillas into rehab.

Typically, a person’s family members have to be the ones to push someone into alcohol and drug rehab if they aren’t choosing it for themselves. In the event that criminal acts are done under the influence, some courts have drug court options in which the offender is offered drug rehab rather than jail time, but still no one is forced into anything. If the offender decides not to opt for treatment, they are well within their rights to choose jail time instead.

In short, it’s highly irregular for a court to force anyone into treatment and though no one can deny that Lillas is an alcoholic and that her behavior under the influence is dangerous, some are a little hesitant about the court’s decision to force her into drug and alcohol addiction treatment.

Said Judge McGuire who presided over her case: “We need to get you help for your alcoholism to quit finally so some poor motorist will not have your death on their conscience when you walk out in front of them drunk.”

To  be clear, Lillas is far from a first time offender. She has been picked up numerous times over the years with drunk and disorderly charges. Her favorite pastime seems to be walking in traffic and yelling at the top of her lungs. She even did three months in an alcohol rehab facility but the court was told that she immediately began drinking again upon her release. The police are have been inundated for years with phone calls from concerned citizens who feared for Lillas’ life due to her behavior, and the courts seem to have decided that it was time to step in.

Says Police Prosecutor Aroha Cooper: “It’s sad because she is such a lovely person. Everyone loves Gladys. She has a real sense of humor but on the down side when she has been drinking, all police can do is lock her up and detox her. She needs some help.”

Inspector Greg Sparrow also commented on Lillas’ situation, saying:  “We’ve usually been called when she has been wandering out on the road presenting a danger not only to herself but to other road users. We are pleased that danger may be mitigated. It is obviously a concern for us having people wandering about on the roads. The last thing we want to see is Gladys being injured.”

What do you think? Is it fair or constitutional to mandate treatment for those who refuse to help themselves if they continue to be a danger to others? Or should the judicial system only be allowed to levy fines and enforce jail time for offenses no matter what the cause of those choices?