REPORT SAYS 10% IN CITY ADDICTED

Mayoral Study Cites $1.2 Billion in Costs

About 60,000 District residents, more than one in 10, are addicted to
illicit drugs or alcohol, and substance abuse costs the city $1.2 billion
each year in lost productivity, illness, premature death and crime and
incarceration, a study released yesterday by Mayor Anthony A. Williams has
found.

The two-year study, which sought to measure the scope and effects of
substance abuse, also found that half of all people arrested for violent
crimes in Washington test positive for narcotics.

A task force that Williams (D) convened in May 2001 announced two goals to
achieve by 2010: reducing the number of addicts from 60,000 to 25,000 and
cutting the total cost of substance abuse from $1.2 billion to $300 million.

Officials billed the task force's study as a comprehensive, citywide
substance abuse strategy and as the first-ever collaboration of 14 federal
and city agencies, including D.C. Superior Court and the public schools,
that deal with substance abuse and addiction.

"This is truly a beginning," said James A. Buford, director of the D.C.
Department of Health, who co-chaired the Interagency Task Force on
Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment and Control. But he cautioned: "We
understand there are no quick fixes or overnight solutions."

The other co-chairman, Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, said, "For too long,
people have treated drug abuse as only a crime problem, when it's both a
public health and a crime problem."

Much of the task force's work was in response to a survey commissioned by
the Health Department in December 2000 and completed in September 2001. The
survey of 1,535 households, which cost about $500,000, found that more than
9 percent of residents reported a drug or alcohol addiction, compared with
an estimated national rate of 4.7 percent in 1999.

The panel concluded that funding for drug-related programs is spread across
many agencies. Although an estimated $356.1 million was spent on such
programs in the fiscal year that ended Tuesday, only $53.3 million funded
programs whose primary focus is on treatment, and of the smaller sum, only
$34.5 million went to the direct provision of drug treatment.

The task force also set four broad goals, but they largely comprise
recommendations that the city is already trying to follow. For example, the
third goal, reducing drug-related crime, includes closing open-air drug
markets, expanding the use of "drug courts" for parents to keep their
families together, and helping former prison inmates as they return to
mainstream society.

The other goals are to reduce the prevalence and incidence of drug use, to
cut by more than half the number of addicts and to cooperate with federal
and suburban officials on a regional response to substance abuse.

Officials acknowledged that because the city assists only an estimated 14
percent of all addicts, much is unknown about the habits and demographic
profile of the remainder.

"We can't answer a lot of questions about the profile of people we aren't
seeing today," said William H. Steward, interim chief of the Addiction
Prevention and Recovery Administration, the branch of the Health Department
that has the main responsibility for providing drug treatment.

Advocates have criticized the addiction agency for its decision to close
Karrick Hall, the city's inpatient drug rehabilitation facility. The
agency's budget has been cut by about $3 million this year.

Addicts seeking treatment face long waiting lists at the agency's central
intake division at 1300 First St. NE and at its detoxification unit on the
former campus of D.C. General Hospital in Southeast Washington. There is a
shortage of long-term residential treatment spaces, officials acknowledge,
and those seeking access often encounter bureaucratic obstacles.

"Treatment beds lie empty, while people who want to get clean and sober are
turned away from central intake and detox," said Robert H. Fleming, a
community organizer who chairs an informal coalition of drug-treatment
groups. "Right now, the best way to get into treatment is to commit a
felony while under the influence of drugs and alcohol."