STUDY: TREATMENT BEST FOR ADDICTS, SOCIETY

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Medical treatment for drug addiction works as well as
treating diabetes or other chronic diseases, dramatically reduces crime and
is a lot cheaper than jail, says a study released Tuesday by bipartisan
public health experts.

But a separate survey indicates that the public believes just the opposite
- -- that jail is best, while support for drug treatment is dropping.

That perception prompts the federal government to spend only 20 percent of
the nation's $17 billion drug-control budget to treat addicts, a proportion
the doctors' group concluded should increase.

``We've been telling people to 'just say no' when addiction is a biological
event,'' said Dr. June Osborn of the new Physician Leadership on National
Drug Policy, prominent physicians and public health leaders from the
Clinton, Bush and Reagan administrations that commissioned the research
from half a dozen universities.

``There must be a bridge between what the public believes and the
science,'' added Dr. Lonnie Bristow of the American Medical Association,
who is helping provide the data to Republican congressional leaders who
control drug spending.

That's not to say medically treating the 14 million American alcoholics and
6.7 million drug addicts is a cure -- many do relapse.

But the scientists concluded that:

- --Jailing a drug addict costs $25,900 per year. A year of traditional
outpatient drug treatment costs $1,800, intensive outpatient care costs
$2,500, methadone treatment for heroin users costs $3,900 and residential
drug-treatment programs range from $4,400 to $6,800 a year.

- --Drug treatment can cut crime by 80 percent, said Brown University
addiction director Norman Hoffman. Brown researcher Craig Love studied
female substance abusers who were in jail, and found that 25 percent who
underwent treatment were later re-arrested, vs. 62 percent released without
substance abuse treatment. A California study of 1,600 drug abusers found
their involvement in drug sales, drug-related prostitution and theft
decreased threefold after treatment.

- --Every dollar invested in drug treatment can save $7 in societal and
medical costs, said former Assistant Health Secretary Philip Lee.

- --Long-term drug treatment is as effective as long-term treatment for
chronic diseases, said Dr. Thomas McLellan of the University of
Pennsylvania. One-year relapse rates for the diseases and for addicts all
are about 50 percent, he said. Compliance with therapy is similar, too:
Less than half of diabetics comply with their therapy, less than 30 percent
of asthma and hypertension patients and less than 40 percent of alcohol or
drug abusers.

- --Drug treatment also helps society's health, McLellan said. Heroin users,
for example, are at huge risk of catching and spreading the AIDS virus or
hepatitis. A seven-year study of heroin addicts found 51 percent who never
entered drug treatment caught HIV during that period, vs. 21 percent of
treated addicts.

Yet, there is a severe shortage of drug-treatment programs, the doctors said.

About 15 percent of people who need treatment get it. About seven states
don't offer any methadone clinics for heroin addicts, and every U.S.
methadone clinic has a waiting list. Only between one in 20 and one in five
pregnant drug abusers can get drug treatment because of too few programs,
inability to pay or too few inpatient programs that will accept the woman's
other children, said Pennsylvania's Dr. Jeffrey Merrill.

The findings conflict with public opinion.

An analysis of national surveys being published Wednesday in the Journal of
the American Medical Association finds public support for increased
spending on drug treatment has dropped from 65 percent in 1990 to 53
percent in 1996.

In contrast, 84 percent of Americans say the solution is tougher criminal
penalties. Next on the list are anti-drug education, more police and
mandatory drug testing.