ADDICTS NEED DETOX FACILITY, POLL FINDS

Drug And Alcohol Abusers Reportedly Cost Every Person In The Country About
$600 Per Year.

Santa Barbara is full of social services to help the needy, but alcoholics
and drug addicts remain underserved and a residential detoxification center
is one of the area's most pressing needs, according to a recent poll of the
Recovery Community Network's 600 members.

"We're concerned that a city this size, and this wealthy, does not have a
public detox facility," said Alex Brumbaugh, the network's project
director. "We really are living in a treatment-poor environment."

Providing treatment makes sense for taxpayers as well as for the community
at large, Brumbaugh said. To prove his point, he cites statistics showing
that alcoholics and addicts cost every person in the nation about $600 per
year in law enforcement, social services and lost productivity, according
to a Brandeis University study, and he notes that treatment can save
taxpayers many times that amount.

He will make a presentation on those findings at 7 p.m. today in the
Faulkner Gallery of Santa Barbara's Central Library. Titled "Why Can't
Johnny Recover?" the event looks at investing in recovery from a taxpayer's
point of view.

Meanwhile, a residential detox program could provide the important step
toward long-term, cost-saving sobriety, he said. Such a facility would make
it possible for people to go through withdrawal safely, while offering
support for sustained recovery afterward.

The county's policy-makers agree. To help meet that goal, the county has
released $100,000 in funding and is seeking proposals from local service
providers to establish a residential detox program, said Al Rodriguez,
project manager for the county's Alcohol and Drug Program and a network
representative.

"We are currently unable to meet the treatment needs on the South Coast,"
said Rodriguez, noting that funding to purchase treatment services has not
kept pace with demand, which has grown.

And yet studies show that treatment can save lives as well as money. That's
because people who get sober are less likely to go to jail, miss work,
crash cars or abuse spouses and children. They also require less medical care.

People who get well contribute to society by being good citizens and paying
taxes, Brumbaugh noted.

"Our own local statistics indicate that if 30 percent of people succeed in
treatment over a period of five years, we can show a $1 million return in
the investment," he said. "Where else can you get that kind of return?"

The network is an advocacy group made up of people who deal with alcoholism
and addiction, including families, law enforcement, social service
providers, educators and mental health professionals. It was formed as a
grass-roots effort to destigmatize addiction and to lobby on behalf of
better benefits and health care for the addicted. A three-year project of
the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, the network is funded with a
federal grant.