STUDY FINDS DRUG ABUSE AT HEART OF CITY'S ILLS

Mayor Promises More Treatment

Cocaine and heroin use rates among District residents are twice the
national average. Heavy drinking is 50 percent more prevalent among
D.C. adults than among adults nationwide. And alcohol-related
mortality is double the national rate, as is the percentage of
residents who need alcohol and other drug treatment, according to a
report released yesterday.

Continuing problems with drug and alcohol use -- particularly among
youths -- present one of the biggest challenges to Mayor Anthony A.
Williams's efforts to improve living conditions in the District, city
officials said yesterday in announcing the study by the nonprofit
group Drug Strategies. They said drug use is linked with much of what
ails the city -- including joblessness, child abuse, domestic violence
and crime -- and has been exacerbated by a lack of drug treatment and
prevention programs.

The two-year study, which officials called the most comprehensive of
its kind to date, also found that marijuana use by D.C. teenagers is
increasing. The city's drug-related arrests are going up, and the
number of D.C. high school students who reported being offered, sold
or given an illicit drug on school property more than doubled from
1993 to 1997.

Williams said the study shows, in stark terms, why the District must
dedicate more resources to keeping youths away from drugs and boosting
programs for adults whose lives have been sidetracked by substance
abuse. The mayor is currently proposing to spend $26 million on drug
prevention and treatment programs. He vowed to increase the amount of
money in his budget for such programs, but did not say by how much.

"We hear you, and we will overlook this problem no longer," said
Williams, who received a copy of the report during the news conference
at Covenant House Washington, a nonprofit in Southeast Washington that
helps troubled youths. "Left on autopilot with these statistics, this
is not a pretty picture. We cannot allow this to happen."

The newest statistics on the lack of treatment programs indicate that
while drug use is going up, the number of outpatient slots and
inpatient beds available has dropped by 50.3 percent over the last
five years.

"We need to find a lot of money here," said D.C. Council member Jim
Graham (D-Ward 1). "The drug treatment budget has been cut by $15
million since 1994. I'm encouraged by the mayor's willingness to
consider increases in funding, but we've got to identify specific
dollars in significant amounts to make a difference."

Among the city's 2,500 child protective cases, 85 percent involve a
parent who abuses alcohol or other drugs, the report found, and
parental drug abuse is a factor in 75 percent of the foster-care
cases. Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer said that
the D.C. police department makes one drug arrest an hour. Recently,
Gainer said, he was at a crime scene when a woman approached him. "I'm
a junkie," he recalled her saying. "Can you get me a [drug treatment]
bed?" He couldn't; there weren't any available.

"At that moment, a person was reaching out for help, and the city
wasn't able to provide it," Gainer said.

The health care costs of alcohol and drug use to the District exceed
$1.2 billion, according to the 40-page study, which was supported by
grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Bonderman Family
Foundation and the Fannie Mae Foundation.

In low-income, predominantly black communities east of the Anacostia
River, "you can always find a liquor store without going far," said
Vincent Gray, former director of the District's Department of Human
Services. Gray is now executive director of Covenant House Washington
and a member of the advisory panel of Drug Strategies.

Although the District spends more per capita on law enforcement than
any other city in the nation, D.C. officials have not spent all of the
funding available to fight drug abuse in recent years, the report
concluded. The city spends $43 per capita on drug prevention and
treatment, compared with $1,257 per capita on criminal justice.

Nearly 70 percent of all arrestees test positive for drugs, while
fewer than 10 percent receive drug treatment, and two-thirds of D.C.
homicides appear related to alcohol or drug use, the study found.

"Drug arrests are basically driving the criminal justice system," said
Mathea Falco, president of Drug Strategies.

In 1997, 617 young people were arrested for drug offenses, a 37
percent increase over 1992. Cocaine and heroin arrests (mostly for
possession) made up 52 percent of juvenile drug arrests, with 47
percent of the arrests for marijuana. Males, ages 14 to 19, make up
just 3 percent of the District's population but account for 19 percent
of all drug arrests in the city.

The District also has the nation's third-highest alcohol consumption
rate per capita -- equivalent to nearly three six-packs of beer per
person every week, the report said. And most alcohol outlets licensed
for off-premise sales are in city neighborhoods with predominantly
African American residents.

The District's alcohol excise tax rates are among the lowest in the
country, and revenue is not earmarked for prevention, treatment or law
enforcement efforts to reduce alcohol-related problems, the report
said, adding that the city's tobacco licensing agency also lacks the
authority to impose fines and suspend or revoke a license because of
sales to minors.

"The gateway to substance abuse is wide open," said D.C. financial
control board member Eugene Kinlow. "But the exits are dimly lit and
poorly marked. We have to reverse this."