NEIGHBORS SEE RISE IN CRIME, BLAME BUDGET CUTS

Neighborhood activists report that prostitution is spreading. In recent
weeks, they have seen an unusual increase in burglary. And they're not
surprised.

"In the past few weeks crazy things started happening," said Neighborhoods
United chairwoman Suzanne Braga. "We're starting to see prostitution,
breaking into homes is on the rise. ... The last time I heard of so many
cars broken into was in the '70s." And, because of cuts in health care and
substance abuse programs, neighbors fear the crime wave will continue to
swell. Their concern is that as methadone treatments are cut off, substance
abusers in rehab will relapse into a life of crime in order to satisfy their
addiction. Hundreds of recovering SouthCoast drug users lost their
MassHealth insurance on April 1 and are now denied access to treatment,
according to local substance abuse clinics. Thousands more in the region
will follow, they say, if last week's House budget proposal for fiscal year
2004 passes.

Weakened methadone programs would be gutted and some claim they would face
extinction. Support for methadone would be eliminated by July 1. Cuts to
treatment programs in the past two months by the governor and legislature
are already showing their effects: Outreach workers claim that former
addicts are back on the streets in search of their next fix and the money to
pay for it. Pam Maloney of New Bedford wants prostitutes "out of my
neighborhood." With her young son in her car, she has been approached on two
occasions by prostitutes begging for money. "It appears that prostitution is
a means of supporting drug habits," she said. "It makes me very
uncomfortable to know that they wander in our neighborhoods." Lt. Richard
Spirlet of the New Bedford Police Department said the department does not
keep a running tally of such statistics and was unable to verify any claims
of recent neighborhood crime trends. "There is not just one thing that makes
a crime wave go up," Lt. Spirlet said. "It can be the economy, it can be the
lack of methadone treatments, it can be a multitude of factors."

Losing Ground

Meanwhile, recovering drug addicts are being knocked off treatment at a time
Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. confirmed that drug abuse
appears to be increasing in Greater New Bedford. His office is investigating
at least seven heroin overdose deaths in the area in the past two weeks.
Carl Alves, president of Positive Action Against Chemical Addiction (PAACA),
estimates that 4,000 people in the area, largely unemployed, homeless and
substance abusers, already have lost their health insurance.

They are being priced out of rehab programs, he said, and are resorting to
the much cheaper alternative: heroin, whose street price can go as low as $4
per dose. "The price of heroin has decreased, while the cost of entering the
methadone treatment now costs $100 to $150," said Mr. Alves, citing the cost
of entering a clinic without health insurance. Methadone blocks the typical
withdrawal symptoms of heroin addiction, such as nausea, headaches and
severe shakes.

A Cal State health study indicates that the state saves $7 for every dollar
spent on substance abuse treatment. Recovering substance abusers on
methadone are more likely to be employed and not to commit crimes.

Hospitals, law enforcement, the courts and prison systems are spared
financial and logistical burden heroin addicted criminals. If the intended
effect of cutting methadone from the budget is to trim costs, Janet
Feingold, director of the Gifford Street Center for Health and Human
Services in New Bedford, sees little hope for legislators. "If you let them
out on the street there will be a huge crime wave and you'll see them
entering emergency rooms like nobody's business," she said. Once detoxed
from methadone and forced off her watch, 80 to 90 percent of her patients
will relapse into heroin usage, she said. Treatment advocates like Mr. Alves
believe it is the community's responsibility to provide a safety net for the
least fortunate by ensuring accessible drug treatment and support to poverty
reduction programs. "If we keep stabbing at the lowest parts of our society,
we are doomed to worse problems in the future," he said. "It is not just up
to politicians, it is a shared responsibility." The spike in crime is not
confined to New Bedford. Fairhaven's police chief said there has been a
noticeable increase in low-level crime. "We have had somewhat of an increase
in larcenies, B&Es and robberies over the past few months of the new year,"
said Chief Gary Souza. "I don't know if that's attributable at all to cuts
in methadone funding, but I can say that the vast majority of those crimes
are committed by people who are drug dependent." Police departments in
several of the surrounding suburbs, including Wareham, Dartmouth, and
Middleboro, said the effects to cuts in methadone programs hasn't reached
them, at least yet. "I suppose if they need their drugs they're going to
fund the habit however they can," said Sgt. Donald Bliss of Wareham. "So
far, we haven't seen any kind of increase in petty crimes, though."

Never Before

The cuts to substance abuse rehab are unprecedented, according to High Point
Treatment President Daniel Mumbauer. "In the 30-year history of this
industry we have never experienced the kind of cuts we are seeing," said Mr.
Mumbauer, citing the elimination of emergency detox for indigents and the
narrowing eligibility criteria for methadone treatment. "Nothing comes
close." The cut in MassHealth benefits "tells a hopeless person that no one
cares about you," said Dermine Frierson, outreach coordinator at Treatment
on Demand in New Bedford. "It affects the morale of the people we work
with." But the April 1 cuts might be only the tip of the iceberg. The new
House budget proposal would eliminate methadone treatment as an optional
Medicaid benefit.

The Department of Public Health stands to lose 10 percent of its $37 million
budget and would shed most of its substance abuse programs. And language in
the new bill forbids the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services from contracting
with organizations that provide methadone treatment, thereby "punishing"
detox clinics for having a methadone program. Betty Funk, executive director
of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Corporations of Massachusetts, senses
an "absolute prejudice" against methadone treatment on Beacon Hill.
"(Lawmakers) are not willing to accept that this treatment works," she said.
Staff writers John Doherty and Cynthia Gomez contributed to this report.