HEAD OFF DRINKING, DRUGS

Support Bill to Expand Medi-Cal Benefits for Adolescent
Substance-Abuse Treatment

Their teachers know who they are -- that is, on the days when these
students find their way to school.

They are the ones whose silence or incoherent responses are actually
cries for help.

Too many of the more than 75,000 California children who need
treatment for drug and alcohol abuse -- including roughly 12,000 in
Santa Clara County -- are pretty much on their own.

And a new study released last week reveals that adolescent alcohol
and drug abuse in California's juvenile detention facilities is
particularly acute and strongly supports the need for more money for
treatment programs.

The study shows that 70 percent of youth in detention facilities and
15 percent of all California high school students abuse drugs and
alcohol at a rate where treatment is recommended.

The neglect must end.

State Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, has a solution. His bill,
SB 1288, would substantially expand Medi-Cal benefits for adolescent
substance-abuse treatment. A companion bill, SB 1469, would provide
California juveniles treatment after their release from a detention facility.

The cost for the program is relatively negligible. High-end estimates
in the range of $20 million equate to less than the rounding error
the state allots in its overall $13 billion Medi-Cal budget.

The benefits would far exceed the costs over the long term. Studies
show that children who don't receive treatment for alcohol and drug
abuse either wind up in juvenile detention centers or graduate to the
jail system at immense cost to taxpayers.

Robert Garner, director of the Santa Clara County Department of
Alcohol and Drug Services, said the survey -- conducted by psychology
Professor Elizabeth Cauffman of the University of California-Irvine
- -- contains the first hard evidence of the extent of the problem
among children in juvenile detention centers in California. Garner
says the state currently provides funding to treat only about 10
percent of the youth in Santa Clara County with drug and alcohol
problems. In Garner's 35 years of fighting drug and alcohol abuse,
there have been only two minor allocations by the state to improve
funding for adolescent treatment programs -- an intolerable record.

Californians recognized the importance of treatment programs for
troubled adult drug and alcohol abusers when they passed Proposition
36 in 2000. The number of adults who need help could have been
reduced significantly if there was more help available when they were young.