ADDICTIONS SLAM STATE FOR BILLIONS EVERY YEAR

The demons of booze, drugs and tobacco cut a devastating swath
through Massachusetts every year, pushing state spending on the
ravaging effects of addictions to $2.7 billion a year, according to a
survey released yesterday.

The $2.7 billion spent in 1998 added up to about 17.4 percent of the
state budget, or $442 per person, the study by the National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found.

``Substance abuse is one of the major public health challenges of our
time,'' said Public Health Commissioner Dr. Howard K. Koh. ``It
affects every community and virtually every family. Its effects such
as violence, traffic accidents, health problems, crime and the future
of children are potentially devastating.''

Gov. Paul Cellucci said Massachusetts' high level of spending showed
money wasn't the only answer.

``What the report indicates is, it's not from lack of resources or
trying,'' Cellucci said. ``It's that these are troubling addictions.
They've been with us a long time.''

The Bay State expenditure of $442 per person ranked fifth behind
Washington, D.C., Alaska, Delaware and New York, researchers found.

Of the $2.7 billion spent in Massachusetts in 1998, roughly one-third
was spent on jails and prisons, juvenile justice and the courts.

While crime and substance abuse appear inextricably linked,
Northeastern University criminologist Jack Levin said the violent
business of the drug trade wreaks more havoc than the mind-altering
properties of narcotics.

``Just because drugs and crime are connected doesn't mean one causes
the other,'' said Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Violence
at Northeastern. ``But the drug industry has played a major role in
determining the crime rate in this country. When it comes to the
chemical effects, I think drugs and alcohol play a limited role.''

Nationally, states spent $81.3 billion dealing with substance abuse
in 1998 - or about 13 percent of their total spending of $620
billion, the study said.

By comparison, states spent on average 13.1 percent of their budgets
on higher education, 11.3 percent on Medicaid, the health insurance
program for the poor and disabled, and 8.3 percent on transportation.

Massachusetts was second only to New York in the proportion of money
spent on battling the effects of substance abuse. New York spent 18
percent of its budget, or $8.7 billion, on dealing with the effects
of substance abuse.

``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.

The new study relied on data from the states about their spending on
prevention programs, research and health care costs directly related
to substance abuse.

Then it estimated the indirect effects of substance abuse. In
schools, for example, costs were estimated for special education for
children with fetal alcohol syndrome born to mothers who drank while
pregnant.

Koh said the state's public health department spends $97 million in
federal and state money on programs for treatment and prevention.
This year, the department plans to expand its successful anti-tobacco
advertising campaign with warnings to teens about drug and alcohol
abuse.

``Alcohol is still the number one drug being abused,'' said Koh.
``Addiction is too often seen first as a crime problem. But foremost
it is a brain disease that needs appropriate treatment.''