Hooked

I just finished Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge our Misguided Drug Rehab System. My brother actually loaned it to me, thinking the San Francisco context would draw my interest. He was right. I couldn't put it down.

In an attempt to see if San Francisco's supposedly improved and revolutionary drug rehab system really works the author follows the journeys of five individuals who seek help from a system that advertises "treatment on demand." Supposedly any person seeking help can be placed in a rehab facility within 48 hours. The individual stories were riveting, and you truly begin to care for these people, but at the same time the stories didn't really surprise me. I've heard many such stories over the last couple years. What was shocking was the system in place in a city that has an incredible need to have a well oiled machine of a rehabilitation system in place. Instead, the system is a mess. Addicts have a hard enough battle ahead of them without having to also find themselves in the midst of a battle between competing methods and philosophies of rehabilitation. A major problem is that there is no cohesiveness to the multitude of programs and counselors along the way. In fact, the methods are so different that they are often actually working against one another. There is no one case manager to oversee a person's road to recovery. Instead, there are several. There are mental health agencies, judges, intake centers, policemen, psychologists, therapists, counselors, live in facilities, drop in facilities and more, and none of them talk to each other. It's a mess that takes the difficulty of getting clean from incredibly difficult to almost impossible for the more hard core addicts. The author does a wonderful job of pointing out how much of the rehabilitation work focuses on external behaviors without getting to the deeper inner issues that plague these individuals and drive them back to drug abuse.

I am reminded that our personal responsibility to love and care for the people around us through relationships is only one part of the total equation. As followers of Jesus we are called to help the systems in place that need helping. I am also reminded to be full or compassion and grace towards the addicts that I see every day. Their lives are a living hell so devoid of the love and joy that their Creator wishes for them.

Oh, and I learned that if I ever need some heroin or cocaine the best place to get it is just down the road on 16th Street and Mission...