SURVEY SHOWS DRUG ABUSE UP ACROSS OREGON

Abuse of and addiction to illegal drugs in Oregon rocketed 232 percent
from 1995 to 1999, according to a survey released Tuesday by the
Oregon Department of Human Services.

The 1999 Oregon Household Treatment Needs Survey of 12,000 Oregonians
around the state also registered a significant first: Greater numbers
of Oregon adults either abuse or are addicted to illegal drugs (10.3
percent) than to alcohol (7.8 percent).

The percentage of Oregonians who use illegal drugs - marijuana,
cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and hallucinogens - has dropped since
1995, but those who use are far more likely to be in troubled territory.

In the same period, problems related to alcohol fell nearly 26
percent.

Senior citizens were the one age group that ran counter to the trend.
Their abuse and dependence on alcohol rose.

The overall percentage of Oregon adults showing abuse or dependence to
alcohol and/or street drugs jumped from 12 percent in 1995 to more
than 15 percent in 1999.

How significant is a 3 percentage-point increase?

"That may not sound like a huge amount. It is," said Gwen Grams,
manager of planning, education and research with the state Office of
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs. "It's tens of thousands of people now
classified as abusive or dependent."

Grams, co-investigator of the study conducted by the Portland State
University Survey and Research Laboratory, presented survey highlights
during a news conference at Willamette Family Treatment Center, a
publicly funded detoxification and treatment program near Skinner Butte Park.

After 21 years in the field, the report was the first time Grams had
seen a graph in which the illegal drug abuse/dependence line crossed
and rose above the line for alcohol.

Researchers were so startled by the data that they checked and
re-checked the numbers and pulled in an outside expert to verify their
work. The results stood and were bolstered by decreases in
alcohol-related car crashes and increases in heroin deaths.

Addiction is at the root of many other social problems. Eighty percent
of Oregon's criminal justice population has an alcohol or street drug
problem, according to state statistics. And two-thirds of child abuse
cases involve substance abuse.

Both men and women showed the same pattern of declining alcohol
dependence and rising drug dependence.

The 25 to 44 age group tallied the most dramatic rise. "Those are
parents," Grams said. "It's scary to see alcohol and drug abuse going
up that way in the parent population."

Why the rise? Human services staffers could only speculate that
society is more accepting of drugs today than a decade ago, creating
an atmosphere in which teen-agers feel it's OK to experiment with
drinking and drug use - setting them up for later dependence and
addiction. Also, methamphetamine recipes on the Internet make it
easier to mix a batch at home.

Other states are compiling their data from similar surveys, Grams
said, and early indications are that Oregon is part of a larger
national trend.

To define abuse and dependency in the survey, the state used a
yardstick drawn from the fourth edition of the American Psychiatric
Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders."

An abuser fits into one or more of these criteria: use in hazardous
situations (such as while driving or boating); use has led to legal
complications or problems (a DUI or other arrest); use causes social
problems; use interferes with their significant roles (parent,
student, worker, mate).

A person who is dependent fits in three or more of these categories:
increasing tolerance to the drug or alcohol; suffers withdrawal
symptoms; uses regularly and routinely; needs larger amounts to feel
an effect; expends a great deal of effort to acquire it; continues to
use even though the drug or alcohol are causing difficulties.

Based on the survey, the state estimates that one in nine Oregonians -
up from one in 16 in 1995 - needs drug and/or alcohol treatment. By
crunching those percentages against the population, that amounts to
376,536 Oregonians.

The report's biggest message: more treatment.

"We believe treatment works," said Gary Weeks, the state human
services director. He called treatment "dirt cheap" when compared with
the cost of untreated addictions, such as housing people in juvenile
correction centers, state prisons or - if coupled with mental illness
- - state hospitals.

Next year, Oregon will replicate a 1995 study by the University of
Washington that found every dollar invested in drug and alcohol
treatment saved $5 in other public costs, Weeks said. Another study,
by Rand, found that money spent on treatment was a more effective use
of tax dollars than police enforcement or border interdiction in
stemming the drug plague.

County data, drawn from actual statistics and estimates, put Lane
County residents' need for treatment at more than 36,900 adults and
630 youths. (Lane County's 11th-graders, in the 1998 Oregon Public
School Drug Use Student Survey, showed a higher use of tobacco,
alcohol and illicit drugs than the state as a whole. Eighth-graders
were below the state averages.)

About 20 percent of people who need treatment are seeking it on any
given day, Grams said. Publicly funded programs can meet only
one-fourth of such demands.

Many states support drug and alcohol treatment programs through a beer
and wine tax. Oregon's beer and wine tax hasn't been increased since
1977 and ranks 47th in the nation, said Barbara Cimaglio, director of
the Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs. Past proposals to raise
the tax have died in legislative committees.

The Social Services Investment Work Group, a broad-based group
appointed by Gov. John Kitzhaber to look at drug treatment in the
state, made a number of recommendations in a recent report, including
increasing the tax to fund treatment.

"We would need a lot of legislative support and community support to
make that happen," Cimaglio said.

The release of the report Tuesday coincides with a proposal before
Lane County commissioners next month calling for the closure of
Passages, an 18-bed center that treats drug-addicted criminals
referred by the court system. The county's share of the operating
expenses would be shifted to the 30-bed, sheriff's minimum-security
Forest Work Camp.

"I still think it's the right choice, given a lot of bad choices," Rob
Rockstroh, director of the county's health and human services
department, said of the expected closure.

But Cimaglio said she would urge county commissioners to look at how
drug and alcohol dependence, mental health and criminal justice
intertwine instead of looking at them as distinct issues with separate
funding.

"If Lane County has a plan and is wanting to be more flexible,"
Cimaglio said, "we'd come to the table."

ILLEGAL DRUG USE

According to a 1999 state survey, Oregonians abused or were dependent
on street drugs at these levels:

Marijuana - 8.7 percent

Cocaine - 2.9 percent

Methamphetamine - 3.1 percent

Heroin - 0.5 percent

Hallucinogens - 2.8 percent

1999 Household Treatment Needs Survey