STUDY: STATES PAY HEAVILY FOR DRUG-ABUSE WRECKAGE

More than 81 percent of what New Mexico spends on its corrections system
deals with problems involving drugs or alcohol, and more than half what it
spends on mental health relates to substance abuse, according to a national
study released Monday.

Nationally, the direct and indirect influence of substance abuse cost
states $81.3 billion dollars a year, or about 13 percent of their budgets,
according to the study released by the National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

The spending is about equal to the amount states spend on higher education,
the study says.

The three-year, state-by-state study, entitled "Shoveling Up: The Impact of
Substance Abuse on State Budgets," put New York at the top in percentage of
funds -- 18 percent of its budget -- used to "shovel up the wreckage" of
abuse. South Carolina had the lowest percentage among states -- about 7
percent.

New Mexico was 28th overall, using 10 percent of its total expenditures on
substance abuse, the study says. And in per-capita spending on substance
abuse, New Mexico shelled out $271, 17th nationally. The year studied was 1998.

Susan Foster, the study's principal researcher, cautioned against
comparisons between states because the report does not include federal
funds and because states spend different proportions of their budgets on
social programs.

Federal estimates, using 1995 data, placed the total of federal, state and
local costs of drug and alcohol use at $277 billion annually, including law
enforcement and social programs.

"Substance abuse and addiction is the elephant in the living room of state
government, creating havoc with service systems, causing illness, injury
and death, and consuming increasing amounts of state resources," said
Joseph A. Califano Jr., the center's president.

Only about 4 percent of the total spending -- about $3 billion -- was for
prevention and treatment programs, Califano said, while the vast majority
is drained in the aftermath of substance abuse from state services that
range from law enforcement and welfare to health care and education.

"Governors who want to curb child abuse, teen pregnancy and domestic
violence and further reduce welfare rolls must face up to this reality:
Unless they prevent and treat alcohol and drug abuse and addiction, their
other well-intentioned efforts are doomed," Califano said.

Of the $159.7 million New Mexico spent on adult corrections, for example,
$129.5 million, or 81.1 percent related to substance abuse, the study says.
And of the $51.5 million the state spent on mental health, $26.4 million,
or 51.2 percent, involved substance abuse, it says.

Overall, New Mexico spent $467.5 million on substance abuse problems, it
says. In 1999 the state spent $541 in operating costs on higher education,
according to a state agency report.

The report recommends greater investment in prevention and treatment
programs, particularly among prisoners to keep those released from
committing additional drug-related crimes.