BOARD SLASHES DRUG TREATMENT FUNDING

RIVERSIDE -- In a move prompted by a cash shortage, the Riverside County
Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved cutting more than 50 percent of the
money doled out to drug treatment centers in the region for operating a
voter-approved rehabilitation program.

The 23 treatment centers in the county that help administer the programs
spawned by Proposition 36 will receive $2 million for the 2003-04 fiscal
year, which begins July 1. Last year, the county doled out about $4.4
million to operate the programs.

"The most direct impact we will see are waiting lists for court-ordered
treatment," said John Ryan, county director of mental health, who oversees
the rehabilitation program. "In all probability, demand is going to exceed
the resources we have."

Prop. 36, which was approved by about 61 percent of the voters in November
2000, requires treatment instead of jail for first-time drug offenders. The
new law provided $60 million to counties for start-up costs and $120 million
a year for the next five years to implement the measure.

The cash crunch stems, in part, from the way Riverside County initiated its
Prop. 36 program in July 2001. At that time, the county decided to use the
$2.2 million it was given for program start-up costs to immediately begin
providing patients with treatment services, Ryan said.

However, that money quickly dried up, mainly because the program has been a
success. In the first 18 months of the program, a total of 2,809 people have
been treated for various drug-abuse problems, with the majority of those
people in for methamphetamine-related addictions, including Yatzie Dee of
Riverside.

Dee, a budding artist, said Tuesday that he has been clean and sober for 18
months and credits the MFI Recovery Center Inc. in Riverside for putting him
on the right track. The center had its funding cut to $260,480 for the
coming fiscal year from $600,000 last year.

"This program works," said Dee after the board's decision. "My life was
nothing. I used to wake up and think about using drugs -- it's a powerful
enemy."

Now, the county must operate the treatment program with $4.2 million in the
2003-04 fiscal year. Of that, $2 million will go to the 23 treatment
centers, with the rest being taken up by administrative, court and other
costs. Southwest Family Counseling in Temecula is the only treatment center
in Southwest County to receive funding, and will get $42,810 in the coming
fiscal year.

The county had been counting on an estimated $2.1 million to $3.3 million in
court fees and forfeitures collected from drug-related cases to help bridge
the gap, but that money never materialized. The net effect will be that
there will be less available slots for those seeking treatment, Ryan said.

While most of the supervisors agreed that the drug-treatment program has
been successful, none of the five offered up a proposal that would provide
more money for the program.