The article "In D.C. Many Addicts and Few Services; Lack of Treatment
Programs Keeps Substance Abusers in Jail or in Trouble" [front page, Aug. 25
points out the local implications of a national disgrace. Nationwide,
despite a 33 percent increase in federal expenditures since 1993, only 52
percent of people in immediate need of drug treatment can receive it. The
situation is exacerbated in the District, where treatment capacity is only
10 percent of demand.

The article touches only on the most disturbing aspect of the treatment gap.
The children of drug addicts denied treatment are cheated out of their
childhoods. These children represent 80 percent to 85 percent of the foster
children in the District, many of whom are condemned to a lifetime of
transience, abuse and neglect. Incredibly, these foster children may
actually be the lucky children of untreated substance abusers. According to
Deanne Tilton Durfee, chairwoman of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse
and Neglect, almost all of the 2,000 cases of children who die each year in
the United States from child abuse involve drug or alcohol abuse by parents
or guardians.

It is sad that at a time when the number of incarcerated Americans exceeds
the active duty strength of the Armed Forces, we as a nation continue to
devote insufficient resources to drug treatment. Sad because many of those
in prison for drug-related offenses will be left untreated and will swiftly
re-offend once released, and sad because drug treatment is so much cheaper
than incarceration for the taxpayer. A Rand Corp. study in 1994 found that
increasing drug treatment was the single most cost-effective way to reduce
domestic drug consumption.

The National Drug Control Strategy calls for a balanced approach between
prevention, treatment and law enforcement in reducing drug abuse in America.
Nowhere is the gap between requirements and actual resources so glaring as
in treatment. The damage America may suffer if we provide inadequate drug
treatment will not only be borne in present-day costs for crime committed by
addicts or the cost of incarcerating addicts -- it also will be borne in the
wasted potential of the innocent children of addicts. And that is a national
tragedy.

BARRY R. McCAFFREY

Washington

The writer is director of National Drug Control Policy.

Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst