DRUGS: PREVENTION IS WORTH FUNDING

If drug prevention programs are working, the state should be paying for them.

Drug abuse continues to be a problem, despite the decrease in crime, and
local drug prevention efforts, such as the River Region Human Services
program, are effective, local officials say.

Funding in each of the two versions of the budget being hashed out in a
legislative conference committee is less than the governor requested.
However, the figures are close and the end result likely will be a
substantial increase from the current level.

This would keep the state on course toward its announced goal of reducing
drug abuse by 50 percent over five years.

Locally, the efforts to divert first-time cases from the courts into
treatment programs, combined with various prevention and treatment efforts,
are producing results. A survey of 19,000 local public school students done
recently showed a drop in drug and alcohol use. The national Safe and Drug
Free Schools Program listed Jacksonville as one of six exemplary school
districts in the nation.

Given the large number of inmates in state prison on drug-related charges,
prevention and treatment programs that work may justify substantial funding
when the funds are available.