DOING MORE TO BATTLE ADDICTIONS

This is National Recovery Month. Next Sunday, Sept. 10, the Community
Recovery Network will sponsor "Bridges to Recovery," a march and rally to
celebrate recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction, and to call
attention to the severe shortage of treatment opportunities in Santa Barbara.

Thousands of people in our community are successfully recovering from the
disease of addiction. Most needed treatment as the first step in their
recovery. The Community Recovery Network estimates that there are over
12,000 persons age 16 and older on the South Coast who are not recovering
and who currently need treatment. For these 12,000, there are fewer than
800 treatment opportunities available. Of these 800 opportunities, most are
restricted. Detox is the first step in treatment, and there is currently no
public detox in Santa Barbara.

The 12,000 people needing treatment include an estimated 4,000 senior
citizens, and nearly 20 percent of high school juniors and seniors. Many
others are in the workforce, and on criminal justice and welfare case
loads. Untreated, this illness costs our community an estimated $60 million
per year in higher taxes, higher insurance premiums and lost productivity.

Everyone is affected by this problem. Untreated addiction contributes to
many of the problems our politicians promise to solve, from health care and
crime to school violence and welfare. Even though addiction treatment is as
effective as treatment for other chronic relapsing disorders like asthma,
diabetes and hypertension, both the problem and its solution remain hidden
and off the page of our local and national political agenda. It is time to
bring this public health crisis out of the dark alleys and into the
daylight. It is time to move out of the problem and into the solution

Join us at 1:30 p.m. next Sunday at Vera Cruz Park on Haley between Santa
Barbara and Anacapa streets. We will march up State Street to De la Guerra
Plaza for the rally. Speakers will include Hannah-Beth Jackson, Gil Garcia,
Rusty Fairly and other elected officials and candidates. The event will
also feature brief testimonials of persons in successful recovery, an
appearance by actor Chris Mitchum, a dramatic skit, live music, food and
information about how you can get involved in this important and growing
constituency movement for bringing sanity to our local, state and national
substance abuse policies.

Alex Brumbaugh, Project director, Community Recovery Network, Council on
Alcoholism and Drug Abuse