Pubdate: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 Source: Providence Journal, The (RI) Copyright: 2003 The Providence Journal Company Contact: http://www.projo.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/352 Author: Bruce Landis, Journal Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) DRUG CZAR PROMOTES BUSH'S TREATMENT PLAN State Officials Are Divided Over The Proposal, Which Would Use Vouchers To Give Drug Addicts More Choice In Treatment, And Gives Federal Money To Faith-Based Clinics. EAST PROVIDENCE -- A top federal drug official visited a local addiction-treatment facility yesterday to push for President Bush's "faith-based" drug-treatment initiative. The proposal is having a tough time in Congress, where critics object to its use of vouchers and say it crosses the line separating church and state. Dr. Andrea G. Barthwell, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, made a quick tour of the CODAC facility on Waterman Avenue, which houses a methadone treatment program and other treatment and prevention programs. Barthwell urged support for the president's plan, which would use vouchers to give patients more choice in seeking treatment, and would give federal treatment money to faith-based clinics. State administration officials support the proposal, saying it would increase funding and provide acceptable treatment, while two of the state's congressional delegates either have major reservations or oppose it. "The state is very supportive of the proposal," said Mark Silberstein, spokesman for the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals, which oversees the state's drug-control programs. "We are not reaching significant segments of the drug-using population," said Craig Stenning, executive director of the state's Division of Behavioral Health Care Services. The president's proposal, he said, would add money to what exists now. But Michael Zamore, U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy's policy adviser, said, "We've got real problems with the idea that federal money will be going towards religious worship." Faith-based organizations can provide treatment services now, he said, so long as they are separate from religious services. Mr. Bush wants to remove that separation, he said, so that treatment and, for example, prayer services, could be mingled. Sen. Jack Reed objects to "the idea that religious organizations will be able to provide services to people and receive direct federal funding without abiding by existing civil-rights laws," press secretary Greg McCarthy said. The religious groups would retain their ability to hire only those of their religion to work on the programs. Kennedy is also worried that vouchers could allow those needing treatment to fall prey to "swindlers or quacks peddling ineffective strategies" for dealing with substance abuse, Zamore said. Mr. Bush's proposal, to add $200 million to drug treatment each year for three years, surfaced in his State of the Union address. Where federal money is now distributed in block grants to states, which contract with private treatment agencies, the proposal would seek greater accountability by giving patients vouchers they could "spend" at any qualified treatment agency. Another big change would be to make state grants competitive. No state would be assured money, although officials said yesterday that Rhode Island's existing treatment systems would give it an advantage. Barthwell said that the House Appropriations Committee cut the $200-million administration request in half, to $100 million, and that the Senate Appropriations cut the request in the Senate bill to nothing. That would leave the issue up to a House-Senate conference committeee. Reed has not voted on the issue yet, McCarthy said. But he said that Reed "has been a pretty vocal opponent of breaking down the wall between church and state." Kennedy voted on a much larger piece of legislation that included drug treatment. Zamore said the drug-treatment proposal was bundled into a vast human services appropriation bill. He said Kennedy, who sits on that committee, voted against the bill mostly because he was "completely dissatisfied" with cuts it made in other critical areas such as education, help for the disabled and efforts to improve teaching quality. "On the whole, he felt it did more harm than good," Zamore said. Of Mr. Bush's $200-million proposal, he said Kennedy thinks that $25 million should go to a pilot program to test the voucher and faith-based organization elements, and the other $175 million shoud be fed into the existing block-grant program. But he said Kennedy would want restrictions to preserve the separation of church and state in the pilot program. Barthwell said the proposal rests on the notion that different people respond to different treatment approaches, and "a belief that there is a power greater than one's self." She said that faith-based organizations have said that, if they were forced to hire persons of other religious denominations, they would not participate. Nationally, Barthwell said, about 100,000 persons seek treatment and do not receive it. Michael A. Rizzi, president of CODAC, said that in Rhode Island, "We have more demand for treatment than we have resources for indigent individuals." CODAC has about 1,000 patients in narcotics treatment at three sites in the state, Rizzi said. He said that about 185 persons get methadone daily at the East Providence facility. Rizzi supported the idea of increasing the ways substance abusers can get the treatment they need. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin