Pubdate: Sun, 12 Feb 2012
Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
Copyright: 2012 News-Journal Corporation
Contact:  http://www.news-journalonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/700
Note: gives priority to local writers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

LAWMAKERS SHOULDN'T CUT DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAMS

Florida lawmakers have once again floated a budget proposal that 
seeks to cut adult substance-abuse treatment by about 25 percent.

If this sounds familiar, it's because the Legislature proposed cuts 
of about 20 percent in such programs in early 2011 budget talks. Led 
by Gov. Rick Scott, lawmakers backed off the cuts and kept funding level.

Painful cuts were avoided. Lives fractured by the abuse of pills, 
cocaine and alcohol were likely put back on track. People who could 
have cost the taxpayers much more -- in prison or in the emergency 
rooms -- were put on a path to become healthier and more productive.

In a state troubled by an epidemic of prescription-drug abuse, 
keeping funding stable for adult substance-abuse treatment was a wise 
move. It's the right strategy in 2012 too. Lawmakers should keep the 
budget ax away from the program.

The good news is that both the state House of Representatives and the 
governor's office have adult substance abuse funded at the previous 
budget's levels. And in making the proposed budget cuts, a state 
Senate subcommittee excluded detoxification programs.

But overall, the relatively small budget item of adult 
substance-abuse treatment -- $124.2 million within a $69.3 billion 
budget -- could see cuts of up to $31.3 million. The subcommittee's 
recommendations go to the Senate Budget Committee on Wednesday.

The Senate subcommittee's proposed cuts are penny wise and pound 
foolish, as the old saying goes.

According to the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association, the 
budget cuts could mean more than 37,000 Floridians with 
substance-abuse problems do not get treatment.

The go-it-alone policy could mean that substance abusers will have 
new brushes with the law. This is where the hidden costs of cutting 
treatment programs really begin to pile up.

If just 5 percent of these 37,000 people have children who end up in 
foster homes, the association warns, the new cost to the state could 
be more than $18 million. And if some of these people are 
incarcerated? The average prison term for a drug offender is 3.15 
years, costing about $52,000 per offender. Prison is not cheap or a 
desirable course of treatment.

It's understandable that lawmakers are turning over stones, looking 
for places to cut the budget.

Some senators have said they would rather cut health programs that 
help substance-abusing adults, rather than vulnerable senior citizens 
and children.

But if they cut rehabilitation programs in a state that has had 
record prescription-pill abuse, they could find new costs coming the 
taxpayers' way -- prison costs, hospital costs, foster-care costs.

Given the relatively small size of the expenditure -- and the 
importance of the state mission to clean up its pill-abuse epidemic 
- -- the Legislature and the governor should resolve to at least keep 
substance-abuse funding stable. The money will help repair lives and 
save the taxpayers further costs down the road.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom