Today's New York PostAddicts opt for jail over detox
By BRAD HAMILTON
Last Updated: 2:19 AM, July 11, 2010
Posted: 2:19 AM, July 11, 2010
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The rollback of the state's strict Rockefeller drug laws last year is having a shocking side effect: fewer city addicts are getting clean, prosecutors and experts say.
Rehab admissions in cases handled by city drug czar Bridget Brennan are down 10 percent from last year and 40 percent from 2008. And new admissions are declining at state-run rehab centers in the city, despite a surge in the number of low-level drug offenders who could seek treatment instead of jail, records show.
State records show 7,968 arrested addicts went to state outpatient treatment in the six months after the law took effect in October, a 2-percent drop from the same period a year earlier.
Many defendants are making a simple choice: They'd rather take a relatively short jail stint than spend the time and energy needed to kick their addictions.
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