The Criminalization of Substance Use Disorder:
It’s clear that we, as a country, have a crisis on our hands. A problem that has always existed and been dealt with in the same manner decade after decade. An issue that has reached a fever pitch causing thousands of deaths a year, filling our prisons, and disenfranchised millions of citizens by placing them in the under-class of citizenry with the one label that supersedes race, “felons”. The criminalization of drugs and substance use disorder is a problem because it fills our prisons, people are labeled with felonies and through focusing on drugs as a crime there is little focus on the much needed treatment for the mental disease of Substance Use Disorder.
The world today has people with mental disorders locked away in prisons, labeled as felons, with almost no focus on the much needed assistance for the root of problem, substance use disorder. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons 45.9% of federal inmates are incarcerated on drug offenses (Federal Bureau of Prisons). This statistic is staggering when you consider the ramification; not only of the people who become victims of the system, but the reality that these same people have the ability to actually be productive in our society, to shape our lives for the better, to become mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, to become uncles and aunts and close friends.
Being labeled as a felon has many ramifications that add to the over issues of our society as well as the opioid epidemic in particular. The second highest rate of recidivism are those with drug crimes at 76.9% being arrested with new crimes (Recidivism). The concept of being a felon is so significant that Michelle Alexander, in her book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness" said,
“Today’s lynching is a felony charge. Today’s lynching is incarceration. Today’s lynch mobs are professionals. They >have a badge; they have a law degree. A felony is a modern way of saying, ‘I’m going to hang you up and burn you.’ >Once you get that F, you’re on fires” (Alexander).
This isn’t that extreme of a relation when you consider the difficulties that individuals go through who have felonies. As one who has dealt with the drawbacks of having a felony I can attest to the demeaning way that people treat felons. To go into job interviews and have the interviewer tell you that they would love to hire you, then when they inevitably ask, “You don’t have any felonies, right?” and knowing they are going to be doing a background check it makes little sense to deny such facts. They squint their eyes, shuffle uncomfortably in the chair, look at the clock, their watch, or their phone, and shake their head as they lead you to the door. This happens time and time and time again. It tends to make one more susceptible to relapse. According to the Bradford Health Services, “By taking care of ourselves and recognizing certain signs, we can prevent relapse. One of the tools some people use is HALT. This handy acronym reminds us to take a moment (HALT) and ask ourselves if we are feeling Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. It seems simple enough, but when these basic needs are not met, we are susceptible to self-destructive behaviors including relapse” (HALT: The Dangers of Hungry, Angry, Loneliness, and Tiredness). While not every drug criminal uses drugs, a significant portion do. So, when they can’t find a job that pays for the most basic of necessities, one can see how easily it adds to the despair that assists in fueling a relapse of drugs. The idea that one can never overcome the felony label permeates deep inside their being. Entry level employment leaves a lot to be desired. Fast-food chains and telemarketing call centers are filled with felons, but even there they are barred from advancement and forced to live in poverty. Since they can’t afford the basics they are bound for the very danger zone mentioned by the Bradford Health Services of being hungry; due to a lack of funds for food. Angry because they can never be anything but a felon; lonely, because of the stigma carried in society of both felons and those with substance use disorder; Tired, as a result of the constant demands and stresses of simply not knowing how to overcome the greatest trap ever devised by man, the war on drugs.
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While the felon label doesn’t discriminate based on race, the justice system does; as a result, there is a disproportionate number of minorities labeled as “felons” for doing exactly what upper middle-class white America is now making millions doing, not to mention the billions the pharmaceutical companies make for destroying the lives of more American’s than any two-bit drug dealer or drug user.
When you look at the world we live in, in reference to the drug epidemic and that of being a felon, we should acknowledge what the author of Rethinking Incarceration, Dominique DuBois Gillard said, “We cannot incarcerate ourselves out of addiction. Addiction is a medical crisis that—when it comes to nonviolent offenders—warrants medical interventions, not incarceration. Decades later, data unequivocally illustrates that this war has been a massive failure. It has not only failed to reduce violent crime, but arrest rates—throughout its tenure—have continuously ascended even when crime rates have descended”(Gilliard). It’s clear that the overlap of mass incarceration and the opioid epidemic is a serious societal problem that is a result of the perception that permeates our culture. People need help and in a land of the free we need to attack these misconceptions in some way. Perhaps, the way that we do that is something that would be difficult to accept. However, without doing something we will continue to lose friends and family to the debilitating disease of substance use disorder and mass incarceration from the war on drugs.