DRUG ABUSE FIGHT PUTS STRAIN ON BUDGET

MONTPELIER -- The state Health Department is facing a $1.2 million deficit
that officials attribute to the rising costs of treating heroin and other
substance addictions, lawmakers learned Wednesday.

The director of the Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs told members
of a joint House and Senate conference committee that he is over budget by
$536,997 this year and is looking at a projected $717,000 deficit in the
fiscal year 2003 budget.

Thomas Perras said the deficit was the result of a higher-than-expected
number of clients seeking state-funded treatment and the state being forced
to send many of those clients out of state because Vermont lacks those
services.

"I think the majority of the cost is associated with heroin," he said.
"We've been using Conifer Park a lot. It's been the only resource, or the
primary resource, used by the courts and corrections."

Conifer Park is a residential treatment center in New York. Most Vermont
clients sent there are referred because it has services to treat heroin
addiction.

The state has very little heroin-specific treatment and no residential
centers geared toward those addicts. With more heroin being used in the
state, officials are forced to ship addicts who seek help elsewhere for
treatment.

Perras said the shortfall would not be as large if the state had some of
its own programs, including a methadone clinic to treat the rising number
of heroin addicts. "I think it would be smaller in terms of how much we
spend sending people out of state," he said.

A clinic is scheduled to open in Burlington in the coming months, but
advocates say it has been too long in coming in part because of powerful
opponents, including Gov. Howard Dean. A former physician, Dean has
softened his opposition as long as the programs are administered in
affiliation with hospitals.

Perras estimated his office spends more than $1 million a year to send
patients to treatment centers outside Vermont at a cost of up to $250 a day.

He warned, however, that when a heroin treatment program does open in
Vermont, it probably would be flooded with patients.

The news of the shortfall Wednesday was unwelcome to lawmakers who have
been pushing to wrap up negotiations on a state budget and adjourn the
legislative session.

"The fact that we are dealing with this on May 29 points to an
inconsistency in the state's approach to drug addiction, which includes
alcohol," said Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, a member of the budget
negotiating committee. "It clearly points to the state's shortcomings."

It was not clear whether the deficit would delay adjournment of the
Legislature, which is expected this weekend. But it does compound looming
fiscal problems for state officials and legislators who recently learned
they would have to use $20 million in reserve funds to balance this year's
budget because of a projected shortfall in state revenues.

The deficit in Perras' office is not the only state department over budget.
For weeks now, the Dean administration has been working with the Public
Safety Department to try to reconcile what was projected to be a $1 million
shortfall in the department's current budget.

Lawmakers said they are considering different sources of money to make up
for the shortage in the Health Department, but that would mean taking funds
from another program.

"It's like putting a finger in a dike," said Rep. Richard Westman,
R-Cambridge, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. The budget
committee is scheduled to revisit the deficit when it meets Thursday morning.