Pubdate: Tue, 03 May 2005 Source: Salem News (MA) Copyright: 2005 Essex County Newspapers Contact: http://www.salemnews.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3466 Author: Claude R. Marx Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?135 (Drug Education) BLODGETT CALLS FOR MORE MONEY FOR DRUG PREVENTION BOSTON - Essex County District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett urged lawmakers yesterday to fund more drug prevention programs because he is "concerned and somewhat scared" about the rise in addiction to opiates. "We have felt the breeze, but we know the hurricane is coming," he told members of the Joint Committee on Mental Health and Substance Abuse. In an interview afterward, he said that his office's effort to work with schools has been hurt by the state's failure to increase overall funding in recent years. He did not specify a dollar amount but said "more has to be committed to make this (prevention) a constant message." Blodgett said that in the last two years 170 people in Essex County have been killed by opiates or a combination of opiates and alcohol. He noted that many abusers start out with OxyContin and graduate to heroin. These numbers could be reduced with more education, he said. Interim Public Health Commissioner Paul Cote promised to present the administration's plan for combating the rise of drug abuse later this month. He presented data showing that Massachusetts has one of the longest waiting lists in the country for treatment and has seen a steady rise of fatal overdoses of opiates. Lawmakers on the panel said they were eager to improve drug prevention and treatment programs but made no specific promises. North of Boston educators and drug abuse specialists warned in subsequent interviews that further cuts in prevention programs would cause even faster growth of opiate abuse. Peabody High School Principal Patrick Larkin said it is more expensive to treat older students with substance abuse problems than to encourage younger students to avoid drugs. Kevin Norton, president of CAB Health & Recovery Systems, said his Danvers-based company has lost about $1 million in state funding to run prevention programs since 2000. At one time, the company had 18 people working on prevention programs and now it has one. "When push comes to shove, the first thing to go is prevention," Norton said. "Those programs have all but disappeared." While the state has cut back, some communities stepped in. The Healthy Gloucester Initiative, a program of that city's Health Department, sends specialists into schools to talk about the adverse effects of drug use. The city contracts with Beverly-based Health and Education Services Inc., which runs similar programs in several North of Boston communities. "We've lost a significant amount of state funding but we have gotten more money from the federal government and some from localities," said Phil Salzman, the firm's vice president. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom