With all the media coverage about celebrities returning for more drug rehab, some of them for the third or fourth time, many people are getting the idea that rehab doesn’t really work. Some people are beginning to think that public funding for drug rehab programs is a waste of tax dollars. The fact is, lifelong recovery from alcohol and drug addiction is almost a certainty when drug rehab is done right.

The public’s lack of trust in drug rehab programs is leading to some dangerously bad ideas, such as putting people addicted to alcohol or drugs on some other drug, or worse, legalizing drugs. These are not solutions, they are problems masquerading as solutions. The call for legalization of drugs is the most compelling evidence that drug rehab is basically a hit-or-miss failure in many, if not most, settings. This is total surrender, a complete capitulation to the power of drugs. It says, Okay, drugs. You win. Come on in and rule our lives because there’s nothing we can do about you.

Putting heroin addicts on methadone is another testament to the failure of most approaches to rehab. Methadone replacement therapy is entrenched across the country and around the world. Addicts remain addicted to a legal drug instead of an illegal one. The idea of getting free of drugs has simply been abandoned. The thought process that leads to this non-solution is, Drug rehab probably won’t work, and it’s going to be too much trouble to try to save this person anyway. At least they won’t share contaminated needles and they might get some of their life back. Of course, they’re addicted to this drug now, but what else can we do about it » Read more: Drug Rehab Really Does Work If It Is Done Right