STATE TACKLES DRUG ABUSE

BOSTON -- Massachusetts has no cohesive plan for battling a growing
substance-abuse problem among its residents, and the state must focus more
resources on prevention to shed its image as a state with one of the
highest rates of addiction in the country, 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 strategy 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
should include allowing interested school districts to impose drug testing
on students, Healey said, and it calls for spending an additional $9.1
million to make treatment programs available to addicts waiting for services.

"We cannot afford to wait any longer to take action," said Healey, who
began meeting with officials in local cities and towns last summer to
discuss how best to approach the state's worsening drug problem.

Fighting Drug Abuse

Highlights of the Romney administration's plan for overhauling
substance-abuse services in Massachusetts:

* Allowing school districts to impose drug testing on students

* Spending an additional $9.1 million to make treatment programs available
for addicts

* Creating a council to bring together the 13 state agencies that provide
substance-abuse services

* Tracking heroin overdoses to help identify regions with the greatest need

Massachusetts is in the top five among states with the highest alcohol- and
drug-use rates, Healey said, and abuse of heroin and OxyContin is growing
dramatically. Although 82,000 people received drug treatment services in
the Bay State in 2004, another 40,000 are waiting for help, she said.
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 state's
substance-abuse problem.

"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. Restore cuts
"This report reinforces the need to restore cuts made to substance-abuse
services in recent years and to fund new services."

The first step called for in the blueprint is the creation of a new council
to bring together the 13 state agencies that provide substance-abuse services.

Each receives a portion of the $250 million the state spends each year on
treatment and services, but there is no coordination among them, Healey
said. Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday signed an executive order creating the
council, of which Healey will be chairwoman. 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. The
additional funding, proposed by the administration in January, would give
an additional 6,000 to 8,000 people access to treatment, Healey said.