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   XPost: or.politics   
   From: clown.show@msnbc.con   
      
   Almost every study says that ‘contingency management’ makes a small   
   positive impact on addicts staying clean for a few extra weeks, NPR   
   exaggerates to say that paying addicts works and should be tried   
   everywhere   
   Link NPR provides to the study backing up their wild claims is   
   laughably broken   
   Left-wing worldview once again at odds with actual science and what   
   studies actually say, pretty obvious unethical reporter didn’t even   
   bother to read them   
      
      
   If you notice anything with NPR, it is that they only things they   
   consider are those that fit their extreme left views, and they very   
   conspicuously avoid thoughts and consequences to the contrary. NPR   
   is constitutionally incapable of considering alternative views, and   
   that is once again clear in their recent article discussing   
   California’s plan to pay drug addicts not to do drugs.   
      
      
   Too bad all the studies involved show that the impact is marginal or   
   minor at best, but you’d never know that from reading April   
   Dembosky’s article.   
      
   Major Violations:   
      
   Opinion as Fact   
   Unbalanced   
   Misrepresentation   
   Statistics Abuse   
   Missing Context   
   Exaggeration   
   Here’s what Reporter Dembosky writes in NPR:   
      
   As overdoses and public health costs related to meth and cocaine   
   continue to spiral in California, state officials are desperate for   
   more effective treatment options and are pursuing legislation and   
   appealing to federal regulators to make contingency management more   
   widely available. Washington, Montana, and West Virginia are also   
   exploring similar strategies.   
      
   Because studies show contingency management works. The principles of   
   the treatment – positive reinforcement techniques, primarily – are   
   used widely in weight loss, fitness programs, and in families, as   
   parents coax their children into adopting good behaviors, rather   
   than punishing them for poor behaviors.   
      
   Research shows contingency management is the most effective   
   treatment for meth or cocaine addiction, especially when combined   
   with other behavioral therapy.   
      
   The key phrase here is ‘contingency management’ when it comes to   
   influencing behaviors. Another way of saying it that sounds less   
   academic is to say positive consequences.   
      
   But part of the missing context is that those positive consequences   
   don’t have to be financial in nature, that’s just part of the   
   legislative lobbying that is also a part of this piece.   
      
   Lobbyist/Reporter Dembosky makes her motives pretty plain on the   
   legislative front:   
      
   …state officials are desperate for more effective treatment options   
   and are pursuing legislation and appealing to federal regulators to   
   make contingency management more widely available. Washington,   
   Montana, and West Virginia are also exploring similar strategies.   
      
   No doubt she’s been contacted and fed this story by someone looking   
   to push and advance these stories. Probably a public relations flak   
   for one of the treatment center chains that contracts with the   
   government and stands to make out handsomely with new contracts.   
      
      
   It’s the most central claim in her article and the link doesn’t   
   work. I wish I was making this up.   
      
   Research shows contingency management is the most effective   
   treatment for meth or cocaine addiction   
      
   Click it for yourself and see!   
      
   THE MOST EFFECTIVE TREATMENT is a link that IS COMPLETELY BROKEN.   
      
   *This* is NPR.   
      
   I dug into the studies and literature myself and tried to find   
   answers on the efficacy of ‘contingency management’ on meth   
   addiction.   
      
   Here’s again the standard that NPR set on the topic:   
      
   …studies show contingency management works.   
      
   Now, this method might positively impact weight loss, or smoking, or   
   addiction, but it seems a bit too strong to just say it ‘works’   
   because that implies that other methods do not work and it also   
   suggests that these methods work completely.   
      
   When you say or write that something works, you usually don’t mean   
   that it works a little bit. Or that it works to improve things a   
   tad. Or that it makes a small impact on the margins. To write that a   
   particular thing works is to say that it solves the problem at hand.   
   It ‘works’ by being the solution to the problem.   
      
   The literature suggests that NPR Reporter Dembosky either does not   
   understand the science and studies, or she was radically dishonest   
   in her description of it.   
      
   *This* is NPR.   
      
      
   The American Journal of Psychiatry in 2006 tested 113 people who   
   were diagnosed with meth, and those who received a small benefit   
   stayed in treatment and stayed off drugs for 5 weeks instead of the   
   3 weeks that was normal. [2]   
      
   A 2007 literature review said that contingency management was a   
   ‘good candidate for inclusion’ and still noted that other non-   
   financial similar practices were deployed to be positive feedback   
   for not using drugs, and that there had not been relevant long-term   
   studies. [3]   
      
   This 2019 study in Malaysia interviewed 7 meth addicts and asked   
   them for about 45 minutes each whether they liked receiving free   
   stuff when they didn’t do meth. They all said they liked the free   
   stuff. [4]   
      
   A 2020 literature review surveyed 27 studies. 20 of the 21 that   
   reported their findings in a useful way found that there was a   
   positive impact of ‘contingency management’ on outcomes. The extent   
   of that benefit was not provided. [5]   
      
   So the extent of the benefit of contingency management on meth   
   addiction? Instead of addicts lasting just three weeks without   
   relapsing, they might last two extra weeks. Meth is a horrible drug   
   and that’s great and all, but that’s not nearly the same as what NPR   
   wrote when they exaggerated saying that it works and exists as a   
   standalone treatment to solve addiction.   
      
   NPR wrote the left-wing fantasy of poor vulnerable drug addicts   
   being helped by the big sweet neoliberal unicorn tooth fairies   
   providing benevolent tax dollars to alleviate the stresses of   
   capitalism, as backed up by the science which has spoken and is now   
   closed to debate from anyone especially evil-bad conservatives!   
      
   But once again, the mainstream media lied to us. It’s almost as   
   though they don’t know how to do anything else, they’re compulsively   
   dishonest, deceitful, and unethical. NPR and April Dembosky are   
   addicted to lying in order to advance a political agenda.   
      
      
   Bibliography:   
      
   2 ]   
   https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/ajp.2006.163.11.199   
   3   
   3 ] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-   
   0443.2006.01774.x   
   4 ] http://www.ijepc.com/PDF/IJEPC-2019-31-06-02.pdf   
   5 ] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33007699/   
   6 ] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?   
   id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002715   
   7 ] https://storage.googleapis.com/plos-corpus-   
   prod/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002715/1/pmed.1002715.g004.PNG_L?X-Goog-   
   Algorithm=GOOG4-RSA-SHA256&X-Goog-Credential=wombat-sa%40plos-   
   prod.iam.gserviceaccount.com%2F20211006%2Fauto%2Fstorage   
   %2Fgoog4_request&X-Goog-Date=20211006T224652Z&X-Goog-   
   Expires=86400&X-Goog-SignedHeaders=host&X-Goog-   
      
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