FOR ISSUE 3

In next Tuesday's primary election, the Lucas County Alcohol and Drug
Addiction Services Board's 0.5 mill, five-year, property levy is back on
the ballot for the third time. The price is right for the return. It will
cost the owner of a $50,000 home just $7.66 a year, and the benefits are
substantial. We urge a vote FOR Issue 3.

The ADAS board, through 18 affiliated agencies, offers alcohol and drug
prevention programs as well as intervention and treatment services, and it
has liaisons with the local drug courts and correctional facilities.

Twice before, the voters have told ADAS no, and the sense was that people
who abuse alcohol or drugs bring their miseries on themselves.

But even if that harsh judgment is so, it must be weighed against the role
alcohol and drugs have traditionally been given in our society, and the
fact that both are surreptitious in taking over individuals and turning
them into addicts almost before they know it.

Few among us do not know someone with a dependency problem. They are family
members and friends for whom most would, if they thought about it, gladly
spend $8 to $16 a year to fix what ails them.

And no matter whose fault the addiction is, society pays one way or
another, through the depredations of ill health, crime, destroyed family
relationships, and devastated lives that will involve this group of people
and spill over into the lives of the rest of us. We will be called on to
pick up the pieces if we refuse to embrace prevention and treatment.

The ADAS board, with an operating budget of $7.5 million, most of it from
state and federal sources, now gets $440,000 from a Lucas County Mental
Health Board levy and another $225,000 from the Lucas County Department of
Job and Family Services and Lucas County Children's Services.

But state funding has been cut, albeit modestly, while the demand for
services keeps rising. The levy would bring in an added $3.9 million
annually, the amount the board believes will close the gap between need and
services.

The ADAS board has shown itself effective in partnering with community
programs to heighten its effectiveness and theirs.

Passage of Issue 3 will fund an expansion of prevention services and
treatment services on demand, which help decrease criminal behavior and
health-care needs and ensure better school and work performance. Treatment
programs could run longer, and there would be more intensive services for
those who need them, as well as expanded efforts to involve family members
in the alcoholic's or the addict's treatment, an important component in the
process.

This is a levy that makes winners of everyone, those who pay and those who
get the services. It came close to passing last time. This time the
community would do itself a favor by putting Issue 3 over the top.