Mackenzie M. Michigan

Treating Addiction in the U.S.

A Troubling Issue for Adults and Teens

Dear Future President,

Hi, my name is Mackenzie Mann and I am a freshman at Saline High School. For several years the amount of addicted teens and adults in our country has increased to an inexplicable level. I have had experience with this situation, considering that there is a history of addiction in my family. All around me people have died from addiction whether it is alcoholism or a drug addiction, and the United States is not doing enough. People in our country die everyday from this illness, and all that could be done to save them is rehab.


According to The National Institute of Drug Abuse, drug addiction is a chronic disease that is hardly uncontrollable and compulsive. Drugs control the brain but studies from NIDA- funded research shows that prevention programs involved with families, schools, communities, and the media help reduce drug use and addiction. In rehab they use detoxification processes, behavioral counseling, medication, mental health evaluations, and follow ups. During this process there is no prevention programs used, also they say they require a follow up, but how many of the patients actually do this. These processes have to do with treating bad mental health, while this may work in some cases most addictions are cured with prevention programs showing what these people are missing out on in life and things that normal non- addicted people do.


Overall the United States does not do enough for addiction in teens and adults. Introducing prevention programs would benefit these people so that they could treat their disease, without putting them on medications that could make them even more addicted. 


Thank you for taking this into consideration, good luck!