DRUG TREATMENT CAN SAVE LIVES

People could have died Sunday because appropriate drug treatment wasn't
available for a teen-ager who needed it.

At home instead of a state drug-treatment facility, the 16-year-old led a
Rose Hill police officer on a chase that he said reached 120 mph. It ended
when she wrecked, somehow escaping serious injury.

The officer and others on the highway also managed to avoid injuries or
worse. But such a chase easily could have ended in tragedy.

The girl had pleaded guilty only weeks ago to assaulting a Wilmington
police officer with a deadly weapon. According to the officer, she
repeatedly asked him to shoot her. An SBI agent testified at her trial that
she had been under the influence of methamphetamine.

The judge did exactly the right thing, sentencing her to a state inpatient
drug-treatment facility. She plainly needed intensive treatment and plainly
needed to be in custody. She had proven dangerous to others and herself.

But the state of North Carolina's inpatient program didn't have room for
her. The judge was forced to send her instead to an outpatient version.

We see the result. It's a matter of luck that it wasn't deadly for her, the
officer and anybody unlucky enough to get in the way.

North Carolina doesn't need less drug treatment. It needs more.

The state's budget problems are truly awful. But not as awful as allowing
the lack of effective treatment to let drug-addled teen-agers endanger
themselves and others.