COMMUNITIES: COMMISSIONERS RECALL EXPERIENCES WITH ADDICTION

It's not often that you see choked-up people with moist eyes at meetings of
the Lane County commissioners, but it happened Tuesday when dozens of
people showed up to support a resolution designating September as National
Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Month.

It quickly became clear during the early-morning proceeding that just about
everybody - including the commissioners themselves - has had some personal,
and very emotional, experience with drug or alcohol use among their friends
or family.

So many people showed up, in fact, that the meeting had to be moved from
the smaller commissioners' conference room to Harris Hall.

Three people who have been clean and sober for several years shared their
stories with the commissioners.

June Sederbaum Harris said she became addicted to narcotics and nicotine by
age 16 and lived with addiction for 13 years before moving to Eugene from
the East Coast in 1987.

"I guess I thought that getting close to nature would be a cure-all,"
Sederbaum Harris said. "Luckily, I found myself in the office of a local
counselor who suggested that I attend some 12-step meetings. It was very,
very, very difficult - without community support, I don't know how I could
have succeeded.

"By the grace of God," she said, "I haven't had a drink or a drug in 12
years," and the room exploded with applause."

Others - Jim Gantner of the Lane County sheriff's office and 24-year-old
Crystal Fuller - also shared their stories, which prompted several
commissioners to recount their own experiences with the ravages of drugs or
alcohol within their families.

Fighting tears, Bill Dwyer told of the battle one of his daughters waged
against methamphetamine use.

Anna Morrison's voice broke as she recalled the death of her 35-year-old
brother, a radiologist, from substance abuse.

Peter Sorenson talked about the difficulty of watching an uncle slowly die
of alcoholism.

Not surprisingly after that, the board voted unanimously to designate
September as National Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery Month, citing
figures indicating that more than 36,000 adults in the county need
treatment for substance abuse and that every dollar invested in treatment
results in a savings of $12 related to crime, criminal justice costs,
losses from theft and health-care bills.

But while the need for treatment grows, the resources to pay for it
continue to diminish, said Peg Jeanette of the county's Health and Human
Services Department.

Lane County lost 30 percent of its funding for outpatient services through
the Oregon Health Plan 2000 and took another 17 percent cut in April 2001,
Jeanette said.

Additional decreases have been proposed to help meet the state's current
budget shortfall, she said, including the loss of inpatient facilities
totaling $300,000 for the current fiscal year and an additional $100,000 in
support for outpatient treatment of drunken driving offenders.

In addition, Jeanette said, a three-year federal grant devoted to treatment
of heroin addicts will end a year from now, meaning the loss of $500,000 in
treatment services to 130 people if replacement funds can't be found.

"The cuts are pretty catastrophic - I think that's a fair term to use," she
said. "Many social service agencies estimate that at least 60 percent of
their clients have drug or alcohol problems. If we don't treat those
underlying problems, we're never going to be able to address their other
needs successfully. The situation we face is bad - it's very bad."