Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided Drug Rehab System

Hooked is a very good book. It starts of as one of those investigative journalist things with a description of real drug addicts. Often books of this type look at these people as if they were the inmates of a zoo, but rather than doing that the book uses their problems to illustrate the difficulties which plague organisations which provide assistance to drug addicts. One woman suffers from a combination of mental illness and drug abuse. Her attempts to find help are continually frustrated by the fact that when she applies for assistance from mental health professionals she is told that she has a drug problem and she is referred onwards. When she speaks to drug agencies she is told that she has a mental health problem and told to see a psychologist. In the last chapter of the book she is able to find an agency which will help her, but this occurs only after the intervention of one of the doctors. The intake staff is concerned about accepting her as they prefer people who have fewer problems and who are easy to deal with. A lot of the book is focused on one person Mike who attends a live in facility for close to a year. His story illustrates how current rehabilitation facilities fail to have access to services such as detoxification and also use ritual humiliation as a means of controlling the inmates. Mike breaks a rule by developing a relationship with another inmate. He has to sit in a chair for three days and to go through a re-education session similar to those that featured in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The author makes the point that the people running the program are generally untrained and not able to work out when such treatment is appropriate or whether those who might be put through it could suffer from major mental illnesses. Those people who suffer from substance abuse problems generally will have a background of some difficulty. In this case Mike was a person who was raped repeatedly as a child. There was however no psychological treatment available in the program. More important however is the inability of the program to deal with relapse. Drug addiction is a problem that is often defined by the tendency to relapse. However the response of Mikes program was to kick him out. That is despite the fact that if allowed back into the program his prognosis would have been good. The author is an admirer of the Drug Court system. The reason for his admiration is that the Drug Court is better able to make the diverse and not well functioning elements of the treatment system accountable. Thus they use relapses to build the drug addicts skills in dealing with their addiction so that they are more likely to stay clean. They can also ensure that rehab placements accept people, provide them with appropriate care and they can also direct addicts to detoxification.The book is not only an interesting discussion of the issues the author is able to interest the reader in the story of the addicts he studies. One can see them as humans and follow

Over 2 million Americans in prison, another million each year arrested on drug charges, economic development tied grimly to building prisons and jails. America made a wrong turn somewhere. It isn't like we don't know where and when. It was when we lost faith in the ability of therapists to treat addicts, became afraid and decided they must go to jail and for longer and longer periods of time. Those who understand addiction know that jail sentences do not cure it, regardless of the length. But, judges and prosecutors and victims and voters don't care. They want to feel safe. So the burden falls on those of us who believe drug treatment is a better alternative. And our confidence is shaken by pretty low success rates. Lonny Shavelson has discovered what most have missed. We cannot clean up the addicts until we clean up the treatment system. The system has built a career on convincing us that if someone does not do well in recovery it is not the fault of the therapy or therapist. "The addict just didn't want it badly enough," they say. Not true, Shavelson argues. His book is a must read for policymakers looking for what Shavelson calls, "the elusive secret to effective rehab." It is coerced treatment, make 'em go and make 'em stay long enough for it to work. But...and this is the key to Shavelson's book...the "secret lies...not only in coercing addicts into programs, but in coercing the programs to do rehab right." No legislator or governor should spend another nickel on treatment until they read this book and put it to work in the treatment system. Treatment folks should read it as a "self help" guide. Hold up the mirror to your face! For all of you, a curious thing will happen as you read this book. You will come to understand that no one just becomes an addict. Sure some make bad choices but for most the bad choices were made for them. Childhood traumas, sexual abuse, genetic predisposition. As you read about the lives of the 5 addicts Shavelson tells us about, you find yourself...caring. If we are going to meet this challenge, that is what we must do. Caring is the elusive answer. We must care enough to do what we need to do. For anyone who is involved in the substance abuse issues at any level, this book is required reading. Wonderful book.

The ultimate, and most accurate praise of Lonny Shavelson's journalism is that he makes it look easy. And how easy could it possibly have been to write "Hooked?" Following five addicts through the horrors and small triumphs of their lives--and not just following, but living it with them. Shavelson's compassion and passion are as much in evidence as his journalistic talents, and I much appreciate his willingness to inject his own observations and opinions into this page-turner of a book. It's hard to believe anything this gritty could be so, well, addictive to read--but it is. You won't fully understand America till you read this book.

Dr. Shaverson has pointed out extremely well the failings of our treatment system for addictions that primarily hires recovering people who are poorly trained at best, untrained at worst to treat what a highly trained specialized counselor or psychologist should be handling. Dr. Shavelson also adeptly points out that a disease is normaly treated while it's in progress, and one does not get treatment for drug addiction until they are clean! I recommend this reading to all who believe that 'AA,' 'NA,' etc., are the only way to treat addictions, and that only the 'recovering' person can treat addictions! Ronald E. Hestand, MA, MS, EdD(Candidate), Registered Addictions Specialist

I am proud to say that I work with Dr. Shavelson. He brings great insight into this work. Anyone who wants to understand the problems of our drug culture without experiencing them first hand needs to listen to someone who is working in the trenches and has to deal with real world situations on a day to day basis. I strongly encourage you to listen to him before listening to policy wonks or drug czars.