LAWMAKER SEEKS EXPANDED SERVICES FOR ADDICTS

The 414th session of the Maryland General Assembly was minutes from
beginning when Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Forestville) slipped into the Senate
chamber to claim his seat.

All around him, the place was buzzing.

Lawmakers were showing off their new babies. Politicians, lobbyists and
activists were shaking hands, slapping backs and wishing one another well
as they prepared to duke it out for their share of the biggest surplus the
state has ever seen.

As he waited for the starting bell, Currie, chairman of the Prince George's
Senate delegation, thought about the county's legislative agenda and the
high profile push to secure funding to build new schools and the National
Harbor resort project.

Then, he said, he thought about the addicts--the men and women who are
hooked on drugs, alcohol and cigarettes with few places in the county to go
for help.

According to state and local health officials, the county has 37,000 drug
addicts, the second-highest number in the state, after Baltimore.

On this day of pomp and circumstance, it was the down-on-their-luck Prince
Georgians that Currie wanted to talk about, the one group of people, he
said, that county lawmakers should be adamant about as they begin their
battle for dollars.

He calls this the "other side" of Prince George's, the side he hopes does
not get lost as the county tries to elevate itself economically and socially.

"It's a difficult issue to talk about at a time when you're also talking
about a county that is moving upward," said Currie, referring to the
upper-middle-class residents moving into the county and demanding high-end
services. "It becomes a question of: Is the glass half-empty or half-full?
We've got amazing things going on in Prince George's, but we also have this
problem of addiction and what to do about it."

Indeed, many of Currie's concerns were the subject of a forum last week
that addressed the two sides of Prince George's, the affluent outer-Beltway
communities, where half-a-million-dollar homes are now commonplace, and the
inner-Beltway cities and towns, where many of the addiction problems are
concentrated.

But former County Council member Hilda Pemberton, now vice president of
legislative affairs for Dimensions Healthcare System, said Prince Georgians
need not worry that the "other side" of the county will be lost in the
battle for dollars and attention in Annapolis.

Although county lawmakers will ask for $44 million to continue with the
ambitious plan to build 13 schools and millions more to fund the harbor
project, they also plan to request $31 million from the state's $4.4
billion tobacco settlement to add drug-treatment and smoking-cessation
programs.

Pemberton, who heads a work group studying ways to spend the county's share
of tobacco money, said the $31 million would help pay for the expansion of
residential and outpatient treatment and smoking-cessation programs--such
as the county Health Department's methadone maintenance program, which has
more addicts than available slots, and its program for children and their
addicted parents, which is also in high demand.

"Are there enough here? No," said Pemberton about services for addicts. "We
need someplace where folks can [get] treatment on demand."

In making their case for the tobacco money, county lawmakers will argue
that Prince George's, like Baltimore, deserves a larger share of the fund
than other jurisdictions because more of their residents die of
smoking-related diseases.

"I don't know what the governor plans to do, but we're going to try to
convince him that giving us and Baltimore more money is the right thing to
do," said County Council Chairman Dorothy F. Bailey (D-Temple Hills), a
former county director of family services who had to turn away
drug-addicted mothers and their children because there weren't services or
beds.

Currie said he fears that without a decent chunk of the tobacco money, many
problems will fester.

"We are beset by so many problems," he said. "If we can get rid of some of
the drug problems, then I believe we'll be able to stop addicts from
sticking up people and causing some of these other crimes."