A CAUSE FOR CONCERN AND A CALL TO ACTION

Second in a series on proposed budget cuts that would greatly reduce
substance abuse and mental health care services in North Carolina.

If anyone you love has a drinking problem or is getting a little too
dependent on pain pills, if any teens you know are getting into trouble,
hanging out with the wrong crowd and failing in school, if you know someone
whose mental illness has ravaged his life, you might want to call the
Governor's Mansion soon. At the very least, your local representative in the
state Legislature needs to hear from you. Now!

The slump in the economy has caused budget shortfalls in many states. North
Carolina is no exception. Unfortunately, politicians do not always legislate
with the best good of their constituents or the future in mind. Usually they
vote for agendas that are politically popular during the time they're up for
re-election.

Sometimes politicians quietly cut necessary services when voters are not
looking or are preoccupied with other problems that seem more important.
These days some of the most pressing items on politician's plates are
homeland security, education, prescription medications for seniors and
preserving Medicare. Worthy agendas, every one.

Less popular, far less talked about, but no less essential, are adequate
treatment facilities for mental health care and substance abuse. In an
effort to help alleviate its budget crisis, the state of North Carolina is
planning a massive reorganization and cutback of its existing mental health
and substance abuse treatment programs.

One of the most unforgivable actions the current governor is considering is
taking a $47 million trust fund that was specifically given to underwrite
mental health care and substance abuse treatment and reallocating most of it
to balance the shortfall in the state budget.

How, you may ask, can anyone take a trust fund that was specifically given
for a needed and noble cause and reallocate that money to pay off the
state's bills in areas that have nothing to do with what the trust fund was
established to support in the first place?

Good question. Apparently the state can legally maneuver to confiscate money
from an existing trust fund and reallocate it to pay for something else the
state feels is more pressing at the moment, as long as it returns a small
percentage of the trust fund to be used for its original purpose.

Benefactors be warned: If you are planning to bequeath a trust fund to do a
work that is particularly meaningful to you, arrange for that fund to be
administered privately, where politicians have no way of reallocating your
dream to pay off their extravagant spending.

A legitimate question is, if no one you know abuses drugs, or suffers from
alcoholism, or needs ongoing mental health care, why should you care?

Answer: If you are among the group who can honestly say you don't know
anyone with even one of these problems, consider yourself unbelievably
blessed or incredibly naive.

Who among us has not lost a friend or relative to the ravaging effects of
alcoholism? Is there anyone who does not know of a marriage that was
destroyed and children whose mother or father left them because of drugs or
alcohol? And is there even one among us who has not winced at the sight of
the mentally ill whose minds do not allow them to function and sustain
themselves in normal society?

Actually I'm kind of surprised the state's even thinking of cutting back
services. As part of an experiment, I called an alcohol abuse addiction
information 24-hour hot line listed in the Asheville phone book. I had a
hard time deciding which number to call because there are 38 separate
numbers listed for alcohol abuse and two more for Narcotics Anonymous.

The hot line worker was reluctant to talk to me because he had more
important things to do than answer a writer's questions. But in the few
moments we did speak, I learned that these hot lines are no less busy now
than they were 10 years ago.

The latest craze hot line workers worry about is pills. The use of
barbiturates, oxycontin and prescription drugs is accelerating at an
alarming rate, as is ecstasy and methamphetamine. Crack cocaine use has
leveled off but has not decreased, and younger and younger teens are calling
in for help with alcohol.

Years ago, America made a commitment to fight a war every bit as insidious
and scary as the terrorism that has united our nation as one.
Narco-terrorism is one of the most dangerous and effective forms of
terrorism. If we allow ourselves to forget the importance of the war on
drugs, will that same apathy eventually lead us to slumber while still more
terrorism catches us unaware?

Every victim of terrorism is a tragedy for the entire nation. But few indeed
have been touched as personally by terrorism as they have by the ravaging
and soul-destroying effects of alcoholism, drug abuse and mental illness.

These cutbacks are going to happen, and are now in the planning stages. The
only thing that will stop them is the protest of citizens like you and me.
This is one time when you can make all the difference. Please use your pen,
your phone, your voice and your vote.

Call Gov. Mike Easley at (800) 662-7952. Contact Rep. Larry Justus at (919)
733-5956; Rep. Trudi Walend at (919) 715-3012; Sen. Dan Robinson at (919)
733-5880 and Sen. Bob Carpenter at (919) 733-5875.