The White House just announced a plan to dedicate $2.5 million to help fight heroin addiction. This comes on the heels of the recent statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control stating that the number of overdoses has quadrupled in the past 10 years.

The plan is to partner law enforcement with public health officials in 15 counties that have been hard hit by the epidemic, mainly on the East Coast. The goals include tracking the source of the drug, identifying dealers, finding out how some batches of heroin are laced with other deadly drugs such as fentanyl, and training first responders to administer antidotes to those who overdose.

Saving the lives of addicts sounds great, but that’s not going to solve the heroin crisis.

From 2002 to 2013, the number of heroin overdoses quadrupled in the United States.

Currently the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency spends $3 billion annually on the fight against drugs. Even before Nancy Reagan declared the “Just Say No” campaign, the U.S. had been battling against addiction in the hopes that educating the public about the dangers of using illegal drugs will deter enough people to decrease the numbers of addicts in the U.S.

Unfortunately, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the plan didn’t work. From 2002 to 2013 the number of  overdoses from heroin has quadrupled. The greatest increases in heroin use  are  occurring in groups not previously seen to be using the drug in great numbers; women, those privately insured, and people with higher incomes. Addiction has taken over some communities, and thus has become something that all of us need to deal with.

The chronic use of heroin changes the brain. Physical changes happen that can’t be reversed in a behavioral health 12-step program alone.

Hawaii has a problem with drug overdoses just like everywhere else. From 2009 to 2013 there were 756 deaths from overdoses, 36 percent of these from opoids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine and  heroin.

But for many the abuse of prescription painkillers is what leads to the use of  illegal narcotics. Studies have shown that those who abuse prescription painkillers are 40 times more likely to become addicted to heroin. Other risks include abusing alcohol, smoking or using other illegal drugs.

Hawaii is seeing mainly black tar heroin, and in 2010 drug enforcement seized just more than 2.5 kilograms of the illegal drug at the location considered the primary entry point, Honolulu International Airport.

In order for to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to be successful with its new campaign to stop illegal heroin use, the entire concept of addiction needs to change. This is not a criminal issue, it’s a medical one, and until the law enforcement community, and all of us, understand this, no amount of money is going to change the current rate of drug addiction in the U.S.

The chronic use of heroin changes the brain. Physical changes happen that can’t be reversed in a behavioral health 12-step program alone. For those who try to stop using heroin, the brain receptors that have been permanently altered to crave heroin, and its metabolite, morphine,  cause such a release of other neurotransmitters that it changes behavior.

The craving is so great that the brain will drive someone to get the drug, no matter what it costs. Inhibition and behavior control are the areas that are suppressed by the changes in the brain of an addict. When the brain doesn’t get the drug it’s seeking, that’s where the criminal behavior happens.

Does that make all addicts victims? Absolutely not. Even when intoxicated, we are all responsible for our behavior.

But could the recognition of the biology behind addiction help those who want to stop get the help they truly need? Drug addicts that are caught with a personal supply of heroin should not be incarcerated, they should be put into mandatory rehabilitation facilities and detox. But right now, people caught with heroin go to jail. If they are caught selling heroin, it means even more jail time.

We all pay for the costs to put someone in jail. The average price in Hawaii  is $43,000 per inmate annually.

Drug addicts that are caught with a personal supply of heroin should not to be incarcerated, they should be put into mandatory rehabilitation facilities and detox.

What if that same dollar amount was used to create better detox centers, to provide medical treatment with methadone, Suboxone, Vivitrol, and other medications that have been shown to treat the actual damaged brain that results from the addiction to pain killers? The costs are much lower, and the decrease in criminal activity is a benefit for all of society.

Without this intensive type of treatment, studies show up to 80 percent of heroin addicts return to their drugs of choice, greatly increasing the chances of overdose and death.

Just using a reversal agent for overdoses is not going to help with the long-term needs of medical treatment, in addition to the mental health issues that often arise. Former addicts are 10 times more likely to stay off drugs when intensive resources are available after their initial detox.

Perhaps if society recognized the biological basis of addiction as something we could all be susceptible to, then we might find better ways to treat the problem rather than criminalizing the behavior and locking up those who get addicted to drugs without providing any other help to change the situation.

Society blames addicts for taking drugs. No excuses, no explanations, just criminalization of their behavior. But this has not worked to reduce the number of addicts, and certainly doesn’t explain the quadrupling of overdoses in the past decade.

We need a new approach.