In 2006, the City of Detroit Bureau of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Recovery (BSAPTR) admitted 11,024 individuals for substance abuse treatment. Their demographics are as follows: 37% were female, 64% were between 36-54 years old, 91% were African American, 86% had incomes below $10,000, and 70% were unemployed. Heroin accounted for 37%, cocaine/crack for 25% and alcohol for 21% of admission. The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) estimates that fewer than 1 in 44 persons with a substance abuse problem receive treatment services for which they are clinically eligible. Those fortunate enough to receive treatment often lack the necessary continuum of support services they require in order to fully recover long term. They return to active addiction.
Coincidentally, crime in Detroit in recent decades has risen. In 2007, the city had the sixth highest number of violent crimes among the twenty-five largest cities. FBI reports for 2009 show that the numbers of violent crimes have risen. Drug and drug related crimes account for a majority of all crimes committed.
According to a recent report the Detroit Police Department routinely under reports homicides. This is due to either omission and/or incorrect classification of crimes. The number of homicides reported was 368 for 2008, for a rate of 40.7 per 100,000 residents. While this represents a significant decline in the murder rate from 2007, it still ranks Detroit as the Murder Capital of cities with more than 500,000 residents. Crime associated with drugs and alcohol shows equally staggering statistics.
The ravages of a drug culture coupled with the high incidence of crime have dramatically shrunk Detroit's population in the last 60 years, leaving the city with approximately 40 square miles of unproductive, vacant land. Most parts of the city are littered with abandoned houses and buildings that become havens for crime and drugs.
In addition, research shows that our planet is on the tipping point of an environmental crisis. All over the nation and world we are seeing the negative impacts of global warming. Our dependency on the automobile has not only increased pollution, but has also contributed to the shrinkage of cities such as Detroit, growth of the suburbs, and consequently the depletion of forests, wetlands and other natural habitats, and agricultural land. In May 2009 the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth published the Michigan Green Jobs Report to track the growth of Michigan's New Green Economy. It briefly discusses the problem, but more importantly lays a framework for potential solutions to reinvigorate our stagnant economy.
Finally, we are in the midst of a global economic crisis. Detroit has one of the highest foreclosure rates among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas; only adding to the total vacant land. Unemployment exceeds 20% and high school graduation rates are some of the lowest in the country. New job creation is at a standstill and traditional credit markets remain frozen.
The time is ripe to capitalize on Detroit's abundance of vacant land, the real need for sustainable development, and Michigan's Green Jobs Initiative to empower Detroit's growing population of people receiving services for substance abuse and co-occurring disorders. It is time to seek bold new concepts to re-educate and teach how assuming responsibility for our personal actions echoes through a community and strengthens the fabric of that community as we rebuild our neighborhoods, one person and one brick at a time. It is time to capitalize in a coordinated way on resources available to improve the lives of those affected directly and indirectly by the ravages of drugs and crime in their neighborhoods.
Detroit residents are suffering from substance abuse, mental illness, trauma, violence, unemployment, physical problems and many other challenges at a disproportionate rate compared to other populations. It’s estimated that 50 – 75% of Detroit’s inner city population suffers from untreated or only partially treated substance use concomitant with mental illness. Estimates of substance abuse prevalence based on treatment admission data for 2005 show that there are 159,513 injection drug users (IDU), 112,202 crack users, 264,480 alcoholics, and 88,852 marijuana users in the Detroit metropolitan area. Crack cocaine and heroin are the two major drugs of abuse, but marijuana is the most widespread according to the Epidemiologic Trends in Drug Abuse for Detroit Wayne County, June, 2007.
