Closing gaps in addiction prevention and treatment

08.11.2023 11:47

On the occasion of the public hearing on the draft law on the controlled handling of cannabis and changes to other regulations (BT-Drs. 20/8704) in the Health Committee of the German Bundestag, the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists (BPtK) is calling for both addiction prevention and addiction therapy care to be strengthened.

»The consumption of cannabis has been increasing for decades under the existing prohibition policy. The ongoing ban and criminalization of users make education, addiction prevention and early access to addiction treatment more difficult by making consumption taboo and secret,” says Dr. Andrea Benecke, President of the BPtK. The BPtK criticizes that the regulations on addiction prevention measures in the draft law are too brief. “Instead of equipping the Federal Center for Health Education with more information and advisory tasks, the addiction counseling centers in the municipalities should be expanded and adequately funded,” demands Benecke.

“So far, the opportunity to strengthen addiction treatment care with the draft law has been completely missed,” explains Cornelia Metge, member of the BPtK board. “The addiction treatment offerings for children and young people with addictions must therefore urgently be expanded, both in inpatient withdrawal treatment and in the provision of outpatient treatment places for addiction therapy,” continued Metge.

The BPtK also demands that outpatient psychotherapeutic care be made possible without restrictions. To do this, the abstinence requirement must be deleted from the psychotherapy guidelines, because not all addicted patients can achieve abstinence by the tenth hour of treatment and require longer psychotherapeutic treatment.