SUBSTANCE ABUSE PLAN FOCUSES ON PREVENTION

BOSTON -- Massachusetts has no cohesive plan for battling a growing
substance abuse problem among Bay State residents, and the state must focus
more resources on prevention to turn the tide, officials said yesterday. At
a Statehouse press conference that drew lawmakers from both sides of the
aisle, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey released a 29-page plan for overhauling
substance abuse services in Massachusetts, proposing such ideas as "sober"
high schools for children who are recovering addicts and increased spending
on both short-term detoxification and long-term treatment.

The strategy also asks for $9.1 million for treatment programs. "We can not
afford to wait any longer to take action," Healey said, adding that while
82,000 people received drug treatment services in the Bay State in 2004,
another 40,000 are waiting for help.

Rep. Jennifer Flanagan, D-Leominster, a member of the Legislature's
newly-created Mental Health & Substance Abuse Committee, said there is a
critical need for detox services in north central Massachusetts, but
suggested it is equally important to direct resources toward prevention.

For too long, said Flanagan, parents, educators, and public officials have
been reluctant to discuss the growing problem.

"We hear about Holyoke and we hear about Boston, but we have Leominster,
Fitchburg, and Gardner, and we don't hear about them," she said. "People
think because we're not far from the border of New Hampshire, that the drug
problem is not as prevalent. But we really need to start talking about it."
Elizabeth Funk, president of an industry group that represents substance
abuse treatment providers, yesterday praised the administration and the
Legislature for recognizing the seriousness of the situation.
"Massachusetts is experiencing an epidemic of overdoses and deaths from
opiates such as OxyContin and heroin," said Funk, president of Mental
Health and Substance Abuse Corporations of Massachusetts, Inc. "This report
reinforces the need to restore cuts made to substance abuse services in
recent years and to fund new services."

The blueprint first calls for the creation of a new council to bring
together the 13 different state agencies that provide substance abuse
services. Each agency receives some of the $250 million the state spends
each year on treatment and services, but they don't work closely together,
Healey said. Gov. Mitt Romney Monday signed an executive order creating the
council, which Healey will chair. Among other recommendations, the plan
calls for passage of $9.1 million in supplemental spending to expand detox
and treatment services; passage of a bill to crack down on the manufacture
and distribution of methamphetamine; and real-time tracking of heroin
overdoses to help identify regions with the greatest need. Salem Schools
Superintendent Herb Levine made headlines earlier this year when he called
for mandatory drug testing of high school students in his community.
Yesterday, he said such screening would go a long way toward preventing
drug abuse and addiction.

Levine's son, who became addicted to OxyContin while in high school, has
told his father that drug testing would have scared him away from OxyContin
because it would have risked his ability to play baseball and his family
would have found out. "He says very clearly that had student drug testing
been around in his very early experimentation, he never would have gotten
to OxyContin," Levine said.