GOING TO BAT FOR DRUG TREATMENT

Regional Officials Appear To Avert Cut In Federal Funding

Worried that a successful drug treatment program was about to lose more than
$4 million in federal funds, a committee of police chiefs, treatment
advocates and administrators from the District, Maryland and Virginia
mobilized to challenge the proposal by the White House drug policy office.

They wrote a letter Tuesday to Barry R. McCaffrey, the national drug policy
director, requesting an emergency meeting and unanimously opposing a
proposal to phase out the funding for treatment and prevention. They also
discussed ways of presenting recent statistics that showed drug users commit
fewer crimes after receiving quality long-term treatment. They contacted
congressional representatives, whose aides quickly worked on drafting
legislation.

Thomas H. Williams, the Maryland director of parole and probation, warned:
"When you start pulling those treatment dollars away, the street-level users
are going to go back out and start committing crimes. The police can only do
so much. We need a coordinated effort."

McCaffrey responded yesterday by announcing that he does not, after all,
intend to cut the treatment dollars for a corridor that stretches from
Baltimore to Northern Virginia.

Bob Weiner, McCaffrey's spokesman, delivered what he called "good news" and
described the decision as all but final.

Asked who will make the final decision, Weiner reported that McCaffrey will.
Asked whether treatment and prevention funds will remain intact in the next
fiscal year, Weiner said: "That's his intention. That's where he expects it
to go."

The news was a relief to the leaders of the Washington-Baltimore
High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, who have used federal money
in recent years to supplement a porous drug treatment system and to inspire
law enforcers and treatment specialists to work together.

Without the money, the District, for example, would be required to find an
additional $1.3 million for such needs as residential treatment beds and the
30-day assessment program at Karrick Hall -- a rehabilitation facility at
D.C. General Hospital -- for drug and alcohol abusers in the criminal
justice system.

Maryland would lose $1.4 million, a blow to treatment programs in the HIDTA,
from Montgomery County to Baltimore City, a state official said.

Weiner said McCaffrey has not made a decision on treatment dollars for HIDTA
programs in other parts of the country.

Although the debate continues about how much HIDTA money should go to
treatment vs. enforcement and interdiction, Weiner noted that treatment and
prevention money for the District from other federal sources rose from $3.3
million to $4.9 million from 1997 to 1999.