Gong discovered something surprising: the Malibu drug treatment program was far harder on its elite clientele than the Skid Row program was on the downtrodden. On Skid Row, wrote Gong, “the public providers offer some ‘difficult’ clients a surprising level of freedom to refuse medication, continue substance use, or act in socially deviant ways.”28 Gong found fatalism at the Skid Row treatment “characterized by an acceptance that rehabilitation is unlikely.”
