Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Drug Treatment Availability Affects Child Abuse, Michael Ricks, Dr. Lars Lefgren

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The consumption of illicit drugs is on the rise. In 2013 the number of people in the United States who admitted that they had used an illegal drug in the last month rose to an all-time high of 24.6 million (NIDA). As drug use spreads across the nation, so do efforts and initiatives to curb its rampant negative effects, ranging from stricter law enforcement, more comprehensive treatment, and broader inoculation efforts. While it seems that few of these interventions have proven to be effective—let alone cost effective—Swensen (2015) demonstrated that more available significantly reduces the number of drug related deaths …