Pubdate: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) Copyright: 2003 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Contact: http://www.stltoday.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/418 Author: Hannah Bergman, Post-Dispatch ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM WINS KUDOS When Cheryl came to the Queen of Peace Center in January, she said, she had little faith in God and many doubts about how she would learn to live without drugs and alcohol. But the faith-based recovery program is helping the woman turn her own life and that of her 8-year-old daughter around through its residential treatment and transitional living programs. Those are programs that Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., and Andrea Barthwell, deputy director at the National Drug Control Policy office, singled out Tuesday as the kind that could receive clients and funding through a voucher-based drug recovery plan. Talent and Barthwell were at the Catholic Charities-supported treatment center in the Central West End to promote the "Access to Recovery Initiative" announced by President George W. Bush during his State of the Union address. The program calls for $1.6 billion in funding over five years and is designed to help at least 100,000 people get drug and alcohol abuse treatment each year. Funding for the program is still in the appropriations stage, but Talent and Barthwell were optimistic that the money would come through. "We've long recognized that individuals are responsive to treatment that meets their needs," Barthwell said. This voucher program, Talent added, is one that acknowledges, for some people, those treatment programs that recognize a higher power can be the most successful. For Cheryl, that higher power has been part of her recovery process. "When I came here I was spiritually bankrupt, and today I'm not," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake