DRUG-TREATMENT PROPOSAL PROMOTED

Official: Bush Plan Would Help Best Programs Reach Out

Mark Meredith's days are full of faces - faces of people dealing with the
same kind of addiction that he fights every day.

Meredith, who entered the Volunteers of America's "third step program" in
1997 to get help beating his addiction to cocaine, is now an outpatient
counselor for the agency's treatment center in Louisville.

"It was like being reborn," Meredith, 41, said of his 10-month stay with
the agency's program. "I had to change my ways of thinking and behaving to
learn to make basic decisions. I feel like I've successfully changed a lot
of that."

Organizations like Volunteers of America may be among those receiving new
federal funding if Congress approves President Bush's proposed three-year,
$600 million drug-treatment plan.

Bush's "Access to Recovery" initiative was discussed by John P. Walters,
the director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy,
and U.S. Rep. Anne Northup, R-3rd District, during a visit yesterday to the
Volunteers of America center, at 1436 S. Shelby St.

The initiative would create a voucher program to help people get into
existing alcohol - and drug - abuse treatment programs.

"We know treatment works. Our job is to make those efforts more salient to
more people," Walters said during a news conference yesterday at the center.

Under the plan, people who are seeking drug and alcohol treatment would be
assessed and given a voucher to pay for a range of appropriate community
treatment programs. The list of eligible programs would be set by the
states, which would be required to monitor the results and costs of the
vouchers.

Accountability would be a key part of the initiative, Walters said, noting
that payments to service providers would be linked to the demonstration of
their effectiveness.

"If you don't help solve the problem, we don't want you in the program,"
Walters said.

Walters said he came to Louisville to talk about the proposed program
because it is an area that is "particularly and disproportionately
affected" by drug abuse. Bush's proposal would help alleviate the strain,
he said.

A statement released by the Office of National Drug Control Policy before
Walter s ' visit reported that 1,560 people entered Louisville-area
emergency rooms for drug-related incidents in 2001, and 2,124 people were
participating in drug-treatment programs the same year.

Walters said the administration's goal is not to take over or create
treatment programs, but to provide resources to individuals who need help
and to help programs that work reach more people . "We recognize we're a
partner, the president recognizes we're a partner. The best we can do is
provide the resources," Walters said.

Northup said she will support the proposal.

"Money is tight , but my hope is we will do this," Northup said. "It is the
responsibility of Congress to make those tough decisions."