Pubdate: Thu, 19 Apr 2001
Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2001 The Fresno Bee
Contact:  http://www.fresnobee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/161
Author: Barbara Anderson, The Fresno Bee

TREAT ADDICTS OR PAY COST, EX-USERS SAY

Recovering drug addicts and those who treat addictions in the Central 
Valley implored state lawmakers Wednesday to spend as much money on drug 
victims as they do to fight the war on drugs.

"I work with the tragic victims of this war," said James Bowman, a Fresno 
County chemical-dependency adviser. "I know I have continued job security."

Said Ray Tapia, a 33-year substance-abuse counselor from Fowler: "If you 
get in trouble, there's a bed. But if you need treatment, there's not a bed."

The concerns go to the heart of a Treatment on Demand Assistance Act she 
plans to introduce in the Senate in the next couple of weeks, said Sen. 
Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

Boxer and U.S. Rep. Cal Dooley, D-Hanford, listened to concerns during 
Wednesday's Central Valley Methamphetamine Treatment Summit in downtown 
Fresno. The public was invited to discuss ideas for making substance-abuse 
treatment more effective and available. It was the second summit to focus 
on meth abuse. A meeting in January looked at the need for more law 
enforcement resources.

Boxer said her legislation would double the federal government's funding 
for drug treatment over the next five years -- from the current $3 billion 
to $6 billion by 2006. Half of the money would be given to the states in 
grants, and 50% would be given directly to treatment providers.

Dooley said he plans to introduce similar legislation in the House. 
Providing adequate money for drug-abuse treatment makes fiscal sense as 
well as common sense, he said. To treat an addict costs about $3,000 a 
year, compared with $24,000 for incarceration.

Increasing the amount spent on substance-abuse treatment is critical, Boxer 
said. Of 5 million substance abusers nationwide, less than one-half are 
receiving treatment. "This is unacceptable," she said.

Methamphetamine use is of particular concern, Boxer said, because it is a 
growing problem. In 1992, there were 14,496 admissions to treatment for 
meth abuse. By 1998, the number had jumped by 285% to 55,745.

"If we were looking at measles or mumps, we would say this is an epidemic 
and we better get on it," she said.

Boxer praised the 200 Valley residents who attended the summit for their 
focus on methamphetamine as a problem plaguing Central California. The 
scope of the drug problem was detailed in an 18-page special section that 
ran last year in The Bee newspapers in Fresno, Sacramento and Modesto.

Boxer said she was leaving the summit with ideas on how her legislation 
could be tweaked to better serve the community. She made note of the need 
for more money for states, such as California that passed Proposition 36, 
which requires treatment for nonviolent drug abusers in lieu of jail or 
prison time.

Boxer's legislation would authorize $125 million a year for five years to 
provide matching grants to states. But from comments at the summit, Boxer 
said it was apparent that was too little money.

Tulare County Judge Glade Roper said his county was allotted $1.4 million 
to provide treatment for an estimated 3,674 drug abusers who meet the 
requirements of Prop. 36. That's about $380 a person for therapy.

"How we're going to be effective treating someone for $300 is beyond my 
comprehension," he said.

Among other ideas Boxer said she gained from the summit:

Drug-treatment programs for methamphetamine need to last at least a year to 
18 months; 30- or 60-day programs don't work, Valley residents said.

"My first treatment was for 60 days," said Nancy Peyton, a recovering 
addict. "The first day I got out, I was drinking and had a needle in my arm."

The Valley needs longer treatment programs and transitional homes for 
mothers who are in treatment, said Deanne Van Drisse, a recovering addict 
who received treatment for her addiction while in prison and who works at 
Spirit of Women, a Fresno drug-treatment program.

"Children raised in this Valley are exposed to the abuse caused by these 
drugs," Van Drisse said. "We need a mentorship program for the children and 
an after-care program for mothers and their children."

Treatment programs need to include consequences for participants who fail 
to complete treatment.

The threat of jail time is a powerful motivator for drug abusers, said 
Roper, who was asked to speak about a drug court he started in the county 
in 1996.

Individuals who appear before him are put in an 18-month treatment program, 
Roper said. Only 5% of those who graduated from the drug court had new 
charges against them at the end of four years. The typical recidivism rate 
for drug abusers is 60% after one year.

The program works because of the length of treatment and the sanctions 
available for those who fail to comply, the judge said. "It's been 
described as 'kicking someone down the yellow brick road with barbed wire 
on both sides,'" he said.

Brenda Kent-Spenhoff, clinical supervisor for the Fresno County PATHS 
program, said she could use a lever to get pregnant substance abusers to 
sign up for treatment. PATHS, a county-funded program, provides treatment 
for women for as little as $3 a day. Approximately 90% of the women in the 
program are on welfare.

The perinatal substance-abuse program has 67 women enrolled but has 240 
open slots, Kent-Spenhoff said. "We need a hammer to get these women there 
and a hammer to keep them there," she said.

Boxer said she would consider making enrollment in a treatment program 
mandatory to receive any type of government assistance, including a welfare 
check.
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