DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAMS SAVE MONEY, STUDY FINDS

Doctors say treating addicts is cheaper than jailing them, but another
survey finds the public opposed to paying for treatment

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

But a separate survey indicates that the public thinks 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 117 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. The group of prominent physicians and public health leaders
from the Clinton, Bush and Reagan administrations 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 relapse.

But the scientists concluded that:

Jailing a drug addict costs $25,900 per year. A year of traditional
outpatient 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 Norman Hoffman, Brown University
addiction director. A Brown researcher, Craig Love, studied women substance
abusers who were in jail and found that 25 percent of those who underwent
treatment were re-arrested, compared to 62 percent of those who did not
receive 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 are about 50 percent, he said.
Compliance with therapy is similar, too: Less than half of diabetics comply
with their therapy, compared to 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 high risk of contracting and spreading the AIDS virus
or hepatitis.

But 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 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 to be published today 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.