Pubdate: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 Source: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) Copyright: 2008 The Daily Herald Company Contact: http://www.dailyherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/107 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) NOT WISE TO CUT DRUG TREATMENT DOLLARS When the needle goes into the arm, it does more than puncture the flesh and feed a drug habit. It also pierces society's ability to manage itself in a safe and sound way. Drug abuse is a huge public health problem. Substance abuse costs the country more than $484 billion per year, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Substance abusers commit crimes that drive up the costs of law enforcement and prisons. Nearly $23 million is being spent per year on special education for children who were born with developmental disabilities due to their mothers' cocaine addiction. Substance abuse drives up the cost of health care. Substance abusers not only ruin lives, but take lives. As many as 22 percent of drivers involved in vehicle crashes are under the influence of drugs, often in combination with alcohol. About half of those arrested for major crimes, including murder, are under the influence of drugs. But there is a positive trend - through the years, treatment has become more widely accepted as a key solution to the problem of drug addiction. And it has become more available. That is, except in Illinois. The state has cut $55 million out of a $113 million budget for substance abuse treatment programs. This has thrust many suburban treatment providers into a struggle to provide services. In some instances, they have been forced to turn people away. They will be among those who can no longer experience the hope that comes with each day free of addiction. If they find help nowhere else, they will be counted among those government statistics that show addiction's ugly toll on society. We know the governor and legislature have few easy choices when it comes to balancing a battered state budget. But they need to think a lot harder about the financial folly of cutting drug treatment programs. What they save now, in cutting treatment, will only cost the state much more over the long run. If they are forward thinking, they will realize this - research shows that for every $1 spent on substance abuse treatment, $7 is saved in reduced crime and health care costs (California Drug and Alcohol Treatment Assessment.) We would invite the governor and lawmakers to ask judges, who value treatment as an alternative to imprisonment, what they think of these budget cuts. They might say they leave them with no alternative but to incarcerate a drug offender which, in Illinois, costs taxpayers $22,627 per inmate per year. And keep in mind that existing dollars are being cut from providers, not what has been budgeted and not spent. Where else might the governor and lawmakers find dollars to pay for drug treatment? They can start by shifting money that was to go to an unworthy cause - pay raises for legislators and the governor that were finally rejected under public pressure - to a good cause in which tax dollars and lives can be saved, not squandered. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin