Addicted to meth? Free cash to quit!

[proud2BlibKansan]

(Addicts Respond to Rewards for Staying Clean//(San Francisco)
By Charles Ornstein

(c) 2005, Los Angeles Times

SAN FRANCISCO -- For more than two decades, Robert Bowers stole money, jewelry, identities, even silverware, to feed his methamphetamine addiction. He landed in prison, rehab and Skid Row hotels.

Until earlier this year, when the government paid Bowers to quit.

A little-heralded program run by San Francisco's Public Health Department over the last year has given meth users rewards worth as much as $40 per week to stay off drugs. And, in a break from traditional approaches, participants receive no counseling or lectures, even if they test positive for meth use.

Their end of the bargain is simple: Show up at a clinic three times a week, urinate in a cup and collect their reward -- a voucher, not cash -- if they test drug-free.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene/2005/12/40wk_not_to_use.html

[lvx35]

1. I think they need a more comprehensive program.

Like a real get on board and do it program, which kinda takes over your life, bans you from dating, and other fun stuff until you are done and functional. Things like this are just too easy to abuse...I mean, I don't see how you would be prevented from just smoking some meth, going in, and then not doing it again for the $160 a month for however many months.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. This article says the simpler approach works

[lvx35]

3. well if it works, it works...I mean 10,000 meth addicts, at $40 a week

and what would it take to quit, 10 weeks? That's 4 million dollars that would go strait back into the legal economy and be robbed from organized crime...(meth purchases) and lets see, it would be what amount of the Iraq war cost?

1/57,250, or 0.0017% of the Iraq war budget.

http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

[NVMojo]

4. ...but I can see this working ...most hard core meth users can't hold

a job. If they stayed clean ...maybe they would ...and money helps.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. It really sounds like a good idea