STUDY: SUBSTANCE ABUSE COSTS 8 PERCENT OF BUDGET

OMAHA - Nebraska spent about 8 percent of its budget in 1998 on the costs
incurred by drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, a private study estimates.

The state spent $291 million, or $176 per person, on the direct and
indirect influence of substance abuse costs, said the study released Monday
by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

The study, which recommends greater investment in prevention and treatment
programs, particularly in prisons, said that out of each dollar spent in
Nebraska on substance abuse costs, only 3 cents went to treatment.

About 6 cents of every dollar went into regulation and compliance, the
study said, and about 91 cents went into the burden that drugs place on
public programs, including the adult and juvenile justice systems, health,
education and family assistance.

The study used data on direct costs, such as prevention programs and health
care, and indirect costs, including estimates on special education costs
for students suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome and drug-related
violence requiring more money on school security and repairs.

Gov. Mike Johanns said he is determined to spend more in Nebraska on
treatment and prevention of drug abuse.

"This is truly a 'pay me now or pay me later' proposition," Johanns said
Sunday. "If not prevented, you will pay for it in an aftershock kind of way."

Johanns has proposed spending $4.1 million over the next two years for
development and expansion of substance abuse and mental health treatment
programs for youthful offenders. The package also includes $4 million for
counties to develop community-based programs to help young offenders.

"Those young people out there suffering from untreated mental illness often
will treat themselves with drugs and alcohol," Johanns said.

Johanns also wants to spend $6 million in the next two years from tobacco
settlement money for improvements to mental health programs, and he is
looking at ways to improve substance abuse programs in the adult prisons.

President Bush on Monday established a White House office that would
distribute billions of dollars to religious groups and charities over the
next 10 years. One role for the groups would be to administer drug
treatment programs.

Joseph A. Califano Jr., the president of the center that issued the drug
costs report, said Bush's plan would be "a big help." It was "long overdue
to get the faith community involved with substance abuse prevention,"
Califano said at a news conference in Washington.

With a population of 1.7 million people, Nebraska's $291 million in
substance abuse costs in 1998 paled in comparison with $8.7 billion spent
by New York. That state also spent about 18 percent of its budget on such
costs.

Substance abuse cost estimates were lowest in Puerto Rico at 6.1 percent of
its budget, and South Carolina, at 6.6 percent, the study said.

North Dakota spent the least per person on substance abuse-related costs,
at $155, followed by $158 in South Carolina, $173 in Tennessee and $176 in
Nebraska and South Dakota. The District of Columbia topped that list,
spending $812 per resident.

Nationally, states spent about as much dealing with the costs of drug abuse
and cigarettes as they spent on higher education, or about 13 percent of
their budgets, the study said.

About 29 percent of Nebraska's budget, however, went into higher education,
the study said, while 12 percent went into transportation and 7.7 percent
went into Medicaid. About 8.2 percent of Nebraska's budget went into the
costs of substance abuse.