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Bipartisan NJ Legislators Introduce Bills Recognizing Addiction as Disease

Author Chris Published on 2 min read
Addiction Treatment Industry Newswire
09/21/2014 -ATIN – A group of New Jersey legislators from both major parties has introduced key legislation, a group of 21 bills, which in essence as a group attempts to codify in concrete legal terms that addiction is a disease, attempting to reverse the punitive approach to the treatment of addicts begun in the 1970s with President Nixon’s disastrous War on Drugs. New Jersey isn’t the only state moving in this direction and even such efforts are being made on a major macro international level with the release of an important report signed by some of the most important politicians and thought leaders in the world calling for drug decriminalization and a complete change in how we deal with the drug addiction problem worldwide.

Boca Raton’s New Life of Purpose at FAU

One of the most important of the 21 bills handed down by the bipartisan group of Trenton legislators is one in which the state would mandate that all colleges and universities provide sober living housing for students in recovery. In many areas, some people are one step ahead in linking recovery with university and college experience. At Florida Atlantic University about a year and a half ago treatment entrepreneur Andrew Burki linked up with FAU officials and started a 27-bed PHP program called Life of Purpose where students live in sober housing near the campus while attending treatment at campus-based Life of Purpose and continuing their studies.

Key International Report

And also in the vein of reform is an absolutely key report released in September to coincide with the creation of a new and potentially (hopefully?) enormously influential Global Commission on Drug Policy. The very interesting and informative commission report is called Taking Control: Pathways to Drug Policies That Work.

Influential Commission

On the new commission are some of the most influential people in global political affairs from across the political spectrum with liberal voices like former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, who is chairing the group, to highly conservative figures like former Reagan Administration Secretary of State George Shultz. Also included on the commission is the legendary ex-Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volker – who understands the absurd economics of drug prohibition similar to those of the disastrous alcohol prohibition of the 1920s – and former Mexican President Vicente Fox whose country has literally been turned into a Vietnam-like war zone where hugely wealthy cartels outgun -or buy-off – even the full might of the Mexican Army and federal police forces.

Read the Global Commission Report

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