UCSF CLOSES IN ON ALCOHOLISM CURE

If the UCSF researchers are eventually successful the pay off for
society would be massive, and profound.

RESEARCHERS at the University of California, San Francisco, may be
onto something big. Very big.

They are hot on the trail of a possible pharmacological solution to
the pressing problem of alcohol addiction.

If they are successful in their concerted efforts at the Ernest Gallo
Research Center and Clinic, the implications would be monumental. For
one thing, a solution to stopping alcoholism in its tracks could lead
the way to blocking drug addiction, too.

The hope is that the researchers' findings could be used to treat a
variety of kinds of substance abuse which act on the human brain in
the same insidious way.

The UCSF work has been so promising that Gov. Pete Wilson has decided
to pump some state money into it. His plan is to provide the
scientists with $143 million over the next five years.

In Wilson's revised budget for the 199 fiscal year, he has included a
first installment of just under $12 million.

State legislators like what they have seen as well. They have proposed
adding another $5 million to Wilson's first-year allocation.

Wilson's latest welfare-to-work program includes nearly $60 million in
the coming fiscal year to help former welfare recipients with their
substance abuse problems.

If the UCSF researchers are eventually successful, the payoff for
society would be massive, and profound.

In California, the cost of alcohol and drug addiction is
considerable.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the state's prison system is
groaning under the influx of inmates incarcerated for alcohol-or
drug-related crimes. More than 25 percent of all state prison inmates
are doing time, at least in part, because of an inability to handle
booze or drugs.

Despite all of Wilson's support for unlocking alcoholism, he continues
to resist adopting what researchers and scientists have been saying
loud and clear recently: the key to decreasing recidivism is to
rehabilitate alcoholics and drug addicts while incarcerated.

Later this month, our prisons will house 3,000 beds for inmates in
stringent drug treatment programs; that's woeful considering the state's
prison population tops
100,000, with more than 25 percent of that number classified as an
alcoholic or drug addict.

Hopefully, Wilson can thaw his stance and at least research tackling
the drug and alcohol problem in the state prison system more
aggressively.

But the problem is not limited to prisoners; alcoholism and drug
addiction persist in all of our communities. When you add in the
effects of addiction on families, businesses, health care and the
state in general, the cost is astronomical.

That's what makes this work at UCSF so remarkable, so needed. Imagine
a pill to cure alcoholism. It sounds too good to be true.

It is a credit to Wilson and the state's lawmakers that, for once,
they seem to agree on something that shows real promise.

Checked-by: (trikydik)