Pubdate: Wed, 07 Mar 2001
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)
Copyright: 2001 Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  400 W. Colfax, Denver, CO 80204
Feedback: http://cfapps.insidedenver.com/opinion/
Website: http://www.denver-rmn.com/
Author: Michele Ames

DRUG, BOOZE PREVENTION FOR YOUTHS UNDERFUNDED

Audit Shows Colorado Spends Four Times More On Adults Than Teens

The club drug Ecstasy is grabbing headlines, but state officials who 
oversee treatment and prevention programs say alcohol and marijuana 
take the biggest toll on Colorado's youth.

And their efforts are being hampered by a fragmented system that 
underfunds programs for teens, according to a state audit released 
Tuesday. "This is the same problem we face year after year after 
year," said Sen. Norma Anderson, R-Lakewood. "How do we fund it?"

No one doubts there's a problem. In a survey last year of 16,000 
Colorado middle and high school students, state researchers found 
that 60 percent of 12th-graders, 50 percent of 10th-graders and 32 
percent of eighth-graders had used alcohol in the days leading up to 
the survey.

However, using calculations based on the more than 141,000 adults and 
juveniles served by the state's prevention programs, auditors 
concluded $21 was spent per youth on direct prevention services and 
$80 per adult. By comparing spending on adults and juveniles for 
programs that help clients recover from an addiction or stay sober, 
auditors found that the state spends four times more on adults than 
teens for prevention and three times more on treatment for adults. 
"You want to get these kids before they start down a long, bad road," 
said Sen. Ron Tupa, D-Boulder.

But state officials who oversee the programs, and state auditors, 
found that in many cases federal strings attached to the treatment 
and prevention money coming to Colorado make it impossible for state 
workers to decide how the money could be best spent. "The federal 
funds dictate the priorities, and juveniles are not the priority," 
said George Kawamura, manager of the office of Adult Health and 
Rehabilitation services in the Colorado Department of Human Services. 
Auditors also found that prevention and treatment programs are being 
conducted by eight state agencies. In some cases, those programs 
aren't tracking how many teens are being served and how well the 
programs are working. Lawmakers, with the support of Gov. Bill Owens, 
approved a measure last year to consolidate the state services into a 
newly created division in the Colorado Department of Public Health 
and Environment. That new division is still getting organized and 
hasn't been operating for a full year. But legislators are hopeful 
their plans to bring all the teen programs under one umbrella will 
yield results.

"What we've done in the past is put a little bit here and a little 
bit there. We haven't put enough in any one place to do any good," 
Anderson said. "Are we getting results for our dollars? We don't 
always know. And we ought to know."
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