Bolstering the War on Drugs Requires a Uniform Assault : Funding Is Badly Needed to Counter Treatment Cutbacks

The federal drug czar, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, makes the good point that the war on drugs must be fought on two fronts: law enforcement and treatment and prevention. That lesson has come home to Orange County.

Law enforcement certainly seems vigorous. More than half those in California prisons tested positive for drugs when they were arrested; more than half the inmates in federal prisons are there for drug-related crimes.

But when it comes to prevention and treatment programs, the record is not good.

Orange County depends on help from the state and federal governments to fund anti-drug programs. But in a disappointing turn of events, state and federal funds for some drug treatment programs have been cut in the past year.

Because of the reductions, Orange County was forced to shut two clinics that specialized in getting young mothers and pregnant women off drugs. The cuts also led to a reduction in the number of addicts who could be treated by nonprofit groups that have contracts with the county.

The federal and state funds lost amounted to $1.3 million. To their credit, county supervisors found $500,000 for the substance abuse division of the county Health Care Agency during budget hearings last month.

Those funds help, but they don’t cover the loss completely. Nor do they touch at all the cuts of $2 million by Sacramento and Washington last year.

State and federal legislators allocate funds based on their priorities. If they feel county drug programs are less deserving than other programs, that is understandable. There are many competing interests, from military expenditures to scientific research to housing.

But the men and women who make the laws should realize, as McCaffrey says, that just passing tough laws against drugs and spending more money on jails and prisons--the law enforcement part of the equation--is not enough.

The county supervisors heard much testimony at the budget hearings from people urging them to come up with funds to replace those cut by Sacramento and Washington. Finding extra money at the county level has never been easy; since the bankruptcy it has been even harder.

Still, people like Christina Martin made a good case for the value of programs to keep young mothers off drugs. Martin was jailed for possessing methamphetamine and was reunited with her two small children only when she entered a county drug treatment program. Martin reported being off drugs for a year. That is a victory in a very tough battle.

Martin said letting people who abused drugs return to their old neighborhoods after prison sends them back to the same problems if they do not receive help. When the county shut the two clinics that serve addicted mothers, it forced some women to travel as far as 15 miles for counseling, parenting classes and support group meetings. With addicts always in danger of a relapse, getting services closer is the goal, not making people travel farther.

County officials rightly note that these programs prevent crime. When run well, they amount to a valuable assist to law enforcement. Some, like residential programs, can be expensive. But they are all cheaper than a jail cell.

Mothers can spend months in the anti-drug programs and years attending support group meetings. Besides the emphasis on the dangers of drugs and how to avoid them, there are sessions on managing anger and how to find a job. Parenting skills are taught, too, since addicts have concerned themselves with getting drugs, not with raising their children.

The county has anti-drug programs for men, too, and for teenagers. They are needed, since studies show that drug abuse does not heed social class or ethnic background.

Washington and Sacramento should look again at local drug prevention programs and try to do a better job of funding them. Recent reports on the increasing number of teenagers using drugs show the problem of drug abuse is unlikely to decline soon. It makes no sense to leave people to try to fight the scourge of narcotics on their own and then spend money to arrest and jail them for using drugs.