The heroin/prescription drug epidemic has become the number
one health crisis in the United States, as more and more people fall prey to
addiction.
Consider these startling facts:
- A surprising 75 percent of all addicts succumb to addiction from a legal prescription they received for a sports injury, an extracted wisdom tooth, a knee or hip surgery, or just ordinary pain.
- There has been a 40 percent increase in the number of women who are addicted.
- More than 20,000 babies a year are born addicted.
- Grandparents are parenting their grandchildren.
- AIDS and HIV are unintended consequences of addiction.
- We lose a person every 11 seconds to an overdose death.
- In 2016, 56,000 people died of an overdose in the United States.
- Americans consume 98 percent of all Vicodin produced worldwide, yet we only make up four percent of the world’s population.
We need community-based solutions.
Hope Not Handcuffs, an initiative started by Families Against
Narcotics (FAN), is aimed at bringing together law enforcement, community
organizations, and individuals seeking treatment in an effort to reduce
dependency on heroin, prescription drugs, and alcohol. It offers a solution.
Hope Not Handcuffs allows individuals struggling with
addiction to turn themselves in to any participating agency and ask for help. In Macomb County, every police department has
agreed to help those suffering from addiction.
No longer will addicts in Macomb County be greeted with handcuffs and
thrown into a cold, hard jail cell by the police. Instead, if they want help they will be
greeted with support, compassion, respect, and a willingness to help.
When an addict comes to a police station seeking help, the
station calls the Hope Not Handcuffs Angel Coordinator. That coordinator then calls one of more than
200 volunteer angels who are trained to help those suffering from
addiction. The angel will help with the
paperwork and provide compassionate support until a treatment option is found. They also will have continuous contact with
the participant and will assist in connecting the participant with a peer
coach. These angels have become a
valuable part of the community solution.
Once accepted, the participant will go through a brief
intake process to ensure proper treatment placement. If the participant is uninsured or on
Medicaid, the program will work directly with the local county health department
for placement. For those who are
privately insured, the program will work with more than 250 treatment
facilities throughout the country that are participating in the program. Our team works tirelessly to make sure every
individual is placed in treatment as soon as possible.
This process has not only reduced the number of addicts
needlessly spending time in jail, it has also shortened the wait for
individuals wanting help. Previously, individuals
sometimes had to wait days or weeks for a bed to open up. Hope Not Handcuffs has been successful in
placing individuals, generally, within a few hours. In fact, the program has successfully placed
225 individuals in the first few months of operation. Recently, Hope Not Handcuffs extended its
reach outside of Macomb County, with chapters opening in Genesee and Lapeer
Counties. We think your county would
benefit from Hope Not Handcuffs, too.
To learn more visit www.familiesagainstnarcotics.org
or contact Judge Davis or Court Administrator Jim McGrail at 586-469-9300.
Judge Davis began her distinguished service as a
41B District Court Judge in 2000. In recent years, she has become instrumental
in the creation of programs like Hope Not Handcuffs to help battle the
addiction epidemic. Judge Davis remains active in her community and
is involved with educating young people, doctors, lawyers, and the public
regarding prescription drug use. She
speaks throughout the state as President of F.A.N (Families Against Narcotics) and
was appointed by Governor Snyder as Chairperson of the Prescription Drug and
Opioid Abuse Task Force. She is also the
founder of Operation Rx Macomb County, a county-wide project for preventing
abuse, addiction, and overdoses.