Drug Treatment

A Baltimore drug-treatment program that was investigated for financial improprieties earlier this year apparently will be denied renewal of a federal grant.The Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, a quasi-public organization, has been operating for three years under a $13 million grant from the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, under a program called Target Cities.But Dr. Peter Beilenson, Baltimore health commissioner, says the city has been notified informally that its application for another $3.4 million has been denied.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to nearly double funding - up to $93.9 million - for "anti-recidivism" efforts in his state, including more drug treatment, counseling and housing assistance for inmates upon their release. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, understands that meeting the primary goal of a state corrections system - protecting the public - includes keeping the worst criminals behind bars and reducing the rate at which other inmates commit crimes once they return to society.

Myra Williamson is back home. She's moving into a house just around the corner from where she grew up - and where, not so coincidentally, her downward spiral began. "I spent most of my life in this community," Williamson said as she prepared to move into a newly refurbished home at Monroe and Lexington streets. "I became addicted here." She had to leave town about 10 years ago to get the kind of drug treatment she felt she needed, but today, Williamson will celebrate the opening of a residential facility in which she will help others fight their own addictions - without leaving the Southwest Baltimore neighborhood.

WOULD YOU use an answering service that charges $55 a call?Baltimore's drug treatment organization did for an entire month -- and paid with your money.The organization's board members didn't question the arrangement, which guaranteed a flat rate regardless of the number of after-hours calls from addicts. They didn't wince when 44 of the 54 callers were simply told to call back during regular business hours. Only 10 were referred to treatment programs.It's an extreme example. But just as $1,000 toilets and hammers once exposed the Pentagon's loose spending, the pricey phone calls show how the quasi-governmental Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems Inc. (BSAS)

MOST PEOPLE in jail have a drug addiction problem. While the offenses they are convicted of may not seem drug-related, it's often an underlying cause. So what better way to treat addictions than in the structured, regimented confinement of the jail?Carroll County's new addition to its Detention Center addresses that need with a segregated 16-bed cellblock dedicated to treating inmate-addicts. The county health department will run the rehabilitation program, affording continuity to outside follow-up treatment.

An innovative countywide program that subsidized treatment for nearly 800 substance abusers last year has fallen victim to a budget cut that critics fear will leave many of the sickest and most needy without care and ultimately overburden the jail system.The $1.5 million drug treatment initiative for people referred by the criminal justice system, launched by former County Executive John G. Gary in 1998 and financed by a $12 million budget surplus, lost more than $1 million under the current budget, which focuses heavily on education.

THE NUMBERS are appalling: An estimated 60,000 Baltimore residents -- one of eight adults -- are addicted to drugs, many simultaneously abusing heroin, cocaine and marijuana. The surrounding counties are believed to have 60,000 more addicts.Out of these numbers flows a river of misery: Last year, police say, drugs were involved in more than 75 percent of the 314 slayings that made Baltimore one of America's most murderous cities. Drug dependence spawns other criminal activity, from break-ins and holdups to prostitution and panhandling.

Drug treatment does work, needs to be more availableThe Sun's two-part editorial (June 27-28) on efforts to fight drug addiction in Baltimore deserves praise for calling attention to a major public health problem.Unfortunately, it missed the point. Drug abuse treatment (whether coerced or voluntary) has been shown repeatedly over the past 30 years to be quite effective in reducing drug use, crime and HIV transmission.Finding fault with Baltimore for not "proving" that treatment is effective is unfair.

Walk-in treatment is available for homeless addictsThe Sun's article "Candidates plot strategy for drug battle" (Aug. 15) provided incomplete information about drug treatment, stating that those seeking drug treatment must wait 11 days for outpatient treatment.While we are far from realizing the goal of treatment on demand, some treatment options are available on a walk-in basis.At Health Care for the Homeless (HCH), individuals seeking treatment may walk in and begin treatment on the same day -- or on the following day if they arrive after 1 p.m. The only qualification is that they be homeless.

An innovative Anne Arundel County program that subsidized treatment for nearly 800 substance abusers last year has fallen victim to a budget cut that critics fear will leave many of the sickest and most needy without care and ultimately overburden the jail system.The $1.5 million drug treatment initiative for people referred by the criminal justice system, launched by former County Executive John G. Gary in 1998 and financed by a $12 million budget surplus, lost more than $1 million under the current budget, which focuses heavily on education.

No audit needed I'm writing in response to the recent articles concerning the Howard Soil Conservation District and the audit to be conducted by Howard County. The Howard Soil Conservation District has been funding two positions to conduct sediment and erosion control plan reviews since July 1, when the positions ceased to be funded by the county. The district funds had been accumulated over 40 years of tree sales, fish sales, rain barrel sales; basically a penny here and a nickel there.

In Baltimore last week, new U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske made the case for expansion of drug courts to treat rather than imprison addicts and called for drugs to be considered a "public health crisis." Why, then, is the Obama administration proposing to spend an even higher percentage of its anti-drug resources on law enforcement than the administration of George W. Bush? Nowhere are these issues more resonant than in Baltimore. Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, a star of HBO's The Wire and a native of the city, said that her mother stole clothes off of her body for drug money and locked her in a closet.

Barack Obama's newly appointed drug czar is looking to Baltimore to help set the nation's strategy, focusing on the city's 15-year-old drug treatment court, which emphasizes therapy over incarceration. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, met with legislators and a drug court judge Monday to discuss the program and collaborative efforts between city, state and federal agencies. It was Kerlikowske's third visit to the city since his May swearing-in. Released prisoners "almost invariably go back to the neighborhood from whence they came," he said after the briefing during a news conference held in the lobby of the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center.

It's time to put up a fight. Baltimore is right to defend its existing zoning code against a Department of Justice lawsuit concerning the placement of group homes in residential neighborhoods. The suit, filed last week in the U.S. District Court, seeks an unspecified amount of money for three organizations and seeks to compel the city to allow residential treatment facilities housing up to eight addicts in any neighborhood. It would invalidate sections of the city zoning code that require City Council approval for the placement of such facilities.

The U.S. Justice Department, making good on a long-standing threat, announced Friday that it had filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging that Baltimore's zoning code discriminates against those seeking drug treatment. The suit attacks a part of the city code requiring applicants for drug-treatment group homes to obtain conditional zoning ordinances from the City Council, a constraint that gives the legislative branch of city government veto authority over those facilities. Other types of disabled housing do not require council approval.

Online drug treatment programs can be just as effective as traditional in-person group counseling, at least in the short term, according to a new report by Johns Hopkins researchers. The concept received high praise Friday morning from former U.S. drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who was at an announcement of the findings at Baltimore's Institute for Behavioral Resources, a partner in the study. "People need effective, science-based treatment that is appropriate for their community," McCaffrey said.

On stock market reaction to President Barack Obama's bank bailout plan: I agree with you that the markets are not the best indicator of whether or not a policy is wise. It worries me that many pundits cede ultimate authority to "the market" as if it were some impersonal deity acting without self interest. Some public policy decisions may be good for Main Street and not good for Wall Street - and vice versa. They need to be looked at in their entirety over time. Posted by: Teresa Kopec - March 23 On the tiny fraction of federal dollars spent on train security: What cost safety?

Treatment centers part of the solution When I read "Group homes stalled" (March 16), I was saddened to see we still don't get it. It appears the city will spend a lot of its scarce dollars to fight against a partial solution to Baltimore's biggest problem - drug addiction. This makes no sense. I have worked in the field of substance abuse treatment for the past 37 years, and I know that treatment is part of the solution, not part of the problem. I suspect many former residents of Baltimore moved away because of violent crime, not because there were too many treatment programs or group homes in their neighborhood.

2 students stabbed in separate incidents A student at Baltimore Talent Development High was stabbed in the left shoulder on a basketball court outside the school yesterday morning, school officials said. Officials said his injuries were not life-threatening. Two boys enrolled at Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts - a high school in the same Harlem Park complex as Talent Development - were taken into custody in connection with the incident, said Edie House, a school system spokeswoman.

A new study done for Baltimore's Abell Foundation concludes that programs that give heroin to hard-core addicts can reduce crime and improve public health - findings some hope will spur renewed debate about whether such an effort could help combat the city's unrelenting drug problem. Peter Reuter, a drug policy expert at the University of Maryland, College Park, analyzed heroin maintenance programs in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and Vancouver, Canada. He found some positive results.