09-07-2017, 05:49 PM
(09-06-2017, 01:24 PM)michaelsean Wrote: What if we don't call it hard labor, or labor at all. I would think that after a proper time for weaning the person off physically and feeding them regularly, building them up to some sort of strenuous exercise would be very beneficial.
That's not what our resident agent provocateur is suggesting. Plus there is a difference between a physical exercise program and 10 hours per day of hard labor. Most of the addicts I've encountered in my line of work have been in poor physical health. Some have almost died due to complications from their addiction. They weren't doing hard labor. When a person starts rehab there is the potential there health will worsen before it improves. I live in Georgia and we do have prison work details. It wouldn't be a very wise idea to have an addict going through rehab working 10 hours of hard labor a day in the Georgia heat. It's a good way to cause a hypertensive emergency which could kill someone. Then there would be a wrongful death lawsuit and the correction officers and the medical providers associated with the death would have their careers put in jeopardy.
Rehab is supposed to be therapeutic. Hard labor related to prison is supposed to be punitive. By combining the two we would make the therapeutic part punitive in nature which would result in another barrier to getting these people help which is at the heart of Matt's topic: as a society, how do we help these people? Most people only think about how they don't want their tax money wasted on these people who have made bad decisions without considering the potential cost savings of getting these people off of drugs. However, as usual Lucie has steered the conversation away from Matt's intent and set a course for crazy town.
