STATE DRUG PROGRAM FALLS VICTIM TO BUREAUCRACY

Officials Offer Weak Excuses For The Third Delay In A Medicaid-Financed
Alcohol- And Drug-Treatment Program.

VIRGINIA'S social-service bureaucracy has failed to gear up an alcohol- and
drug-treatment program for the state's poorest families despite 18 months
to get it organized.

It's a sorry performance that is costing Virginia $5.4 million in federal
funds. There's a bright side, however, for Jim Gilmore. The foot-dragging
saves Virginia $5.1 million to balance a budget impoverished by the
governor's tax policies.

This is the third time administrators have postponed the Medicaid program.
Their excuses are unimaginative. The bureaucracy is revamping its
children's health-insurance program. Of course, it's been doing that for
years. And a new computer system is consuming staffers' energies.

Yes, Health and Human Resources is a state agency that can't walk and chew
gum at the same time.

What is not amusing is the pain for an estimated 16,000 Virginians on the
waiting list for treatment. Many of those hoping for treatment are young
women with children. Some are teenagers growing up in poor families with an
addicted parent. Others are mentally disabled clients who also have an
addiction problem.

Virginia is counting pennies yet wasting dollars when it gives back federal
funds that could have doubled the state's investment in drug
rehabilitation. The $10.5 million that should have been available in July
would have allowed mental-health agencies across the state to offer
comprehensive treatment to clients. Now, they must ignore the black hole of
drug or alcohol abuse that often is the root cause of a family's poverty.

Addicts aren't the only ones hurt by the delay. Communities pay a cost in
higher crime rates and social problems. At a time when Southwest Virginia
is suffering an epidemic of OxyContin abuse, mental-health agencies are
staggering under their communities' needs. Advocates for Western Virginia,
such as Republican Sen. William Wampler of Bristol, should demand a stop to
bureaucratic excuses.

Get this program on the road.