DON'T CUT PUBLIC DRUG-TREATMENT PROGRAMS

The headline on the Jan. 27 article Florida slashing care for addicts
was as predictable as rain in the springtime. It is not possible to
have massive tax cuts without cutting needed services. Drug treatment
works. Drug court works. Drug programs in prisons work. I have been
involved with programs that work since 1975 -- for many years at
Spectrum Programs and for the last six years at Victim Services Center.

I have seen many miracles in lives saved and lives lived at a much
more productive level. Drug treatment is cost effective. Every addict
who stops using becomes a better mother, father, employee. They become
producers instead of users of services. We will all pay the price for
these cuts.

SHIRLEY HAWKESWORTH
Opa-locka
~~~~~~~~

I was appalled to learn that the Florida Department of Corrections,
apparently under pressure to make significant budget cuts, chose the
area we can least afford -- the state's drug-treatment programs.
Certainly department officials must know that curtailing treatment for
offenders with drug histories will only mean sending them back to our
communities to continue their criminal ways. Law-abiding residents
will be the losers.

While reporter Carol Marbin Miller's story provided telling
statistics, probably the most significant was the belief that as much
as 70 percent of inmates are in for drug-related crimes like burglary
or robbery though perhaps not directly charged with drug offenses.
It's a matter of record that treatment programs work for a great
number of addicts who surrender to them.

The department's action is not only ``foolish,'' as Drug Court Judge
Rosinek said. It's irresponsible.

GEORGE CROLIUS
Deerfield Beach
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reading Sunday's article describing how the Florida Legislature voted
to cripple public substance-abuse rehabilitation programs was
disappointing.

There are hard statistics, developed over the past two decades,
showing that every dollar spent on drug treatment, drug courts and
jail programs will save five-to seven-fold that amount in lower crime
and medical costs (about 70 percent of emergency-room admissions are
drug or alcohol related).

Even more important than the financial considerations, however, is the
callousness displayed by the Legislature in condemning the addicts,
their families and society as a whole to live with the devastating
effects of this treatable illness. Unfortunately, drug addiction and
alcoholism carry their own stigma and do not have the appeal of
treatment of other diseases, so the chance of an outcry by the voters
is small.

Likewise, the action of the legislators will not necessarily come back
to personally affect them. It will be the public at large that is
forced to reap the whirlwind the lawmakers have sown.

MICHAEL COHEN
Surfside