Alcohol And Substance Recovery Became Popular - 1557 Words

When alcohol and substance recovery became popular, it was just individual groups that supported recovery. It wasn’t until 1935 that the federal government acknowledged that alcoholism was a disease and needed to be treated. Once the government acknowledged that people could be an alcoholic, they opened their 1st â€Å"narcotic farm†. This facility marked the beginning of federal involvement in addiction research and treatment. Since the government recognized alcoholism as a chronic disease, the insurance industry began to reimburse the treatment of alcoholism just like any other illness. This leads to a dramatic expansion in private and hospital-based inpatient treatment programs. In 1966, President Johnson appoints the first National Advisory†¦show more content†¦Not only is the First Lady pro recovery and treatment, but in 1981, the U.S. Postal Service issues a first-class stamp imprinted with Alcoholism. You can beat it!† This symbolizes that more and more groups were for the education on alcoholism. Unfortunately, alcoholics start to get a bad reputation in the late 1980s. This reputation leads to the creation of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act and Reagan’s â€Å"War on Drugs† plan. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act required all states to make the purchase or possession of alcoholic beverages illegal for anyone under the age of 21. Reagan s â€Å"War on Drugs† campaign took attention off of treatment and more on the consequences of abusing the substance. Even though Reagan tried to shift the attention elsewhere, Clinton brought the attention back to treatment. President Clinton includes a treatment benefit for alcoholism and other drug addictions in his national health care reform proposal. Due to the refocus of treatment and recovery, alcoholism is now treated as a chronic disease and the federal government establishes programs and places for these people to go to and get treatment. Alcoholism under the development of institutes and support groups, the spread of education on treatment and recovery, and the involvement of the government in research and recovery programs can most closely be viewed under the functionalist perspective. The functionalist perspective describes how certain aspects of society