By Dave Ranney
KHI News Service
TOPEKA, Jan.
6
A Dodge City legislator is calling for an overhaul of the state”s alcohol and drug programs.
“We need to take a look at what other states are doing,” said Rep. Pat George, a Republican now in his second two-year term.
George, who openly admits to past drug and alcohol abuse
“I”m 15 years clean and sober,” he said
served on a national task force that recently released a
report
that chided states for consistently relegating substance-abuse issues to a back burner.
Coordinated by Boston University School of Public Health”s
Join Together program
, the 11-member task force was chaired by former Massachusetts governor and 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.
Dukakis” wife, Kitty, is a recovering alcoholic.
“What we found was that, on average, 13 percent of a state”s budget is spent on repairing the damage caused by substance abuse health care, crime, child abuse, drunk driving, people missing work, families being torn apart,” George said.
“So for Kansas, I figure that”s $1.5 billion,” he said.
Studies have found that more than half of all state prison inmates were under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they were arrested; nearly one in six committed their crimes to support a drug addiction.
George said he wants to host a summit on the state”s alcohol and drug programs sometime during the 2007 legislative session.
“I want to get the players together to find out where we are and what we need to do,” he said.
Recommendations in the Join Together report include:
*
Continuing education classes for lawyers, judges and doctors;
*
Increasing state taxes on alcohol;
*
Creating a substance abuse advisory board that would report directly to the governor; and
*
Rewarding programs for their successes.
Drug and alcohol abuse counselors welcomed news of George”s initiative.
“Our funding for drug and alcohol services has been pretty flat for the last five years,” said Dennis Kennedy, clinical director at the Substance Abuse Center of Kansas in Wichita.
The resulting shortage of services, Kennedy said, has taken a toll on Sedgwick County.
“I just came from a meeting where the people running the jail wanted to know what we can do to help them get some of their people into treatment because they”re full,” Kennedy said. “They need beds.”
But the Center”s in-patient beds, too, are full.
“The waiting list for residential treatment beds is long,” he said.
Kennedy said the state”s drug and alcohol programs are desperately short of funds.
“We”re all going to be listening to the governor”s State of the State speech to see if she recommends more money,” he said.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will deliver her State of the State address Jan. 10.
Dave Ranney is a staff writer for KHI News Service, which specializes in coverage of health issues facing Kansans. He can be reached at
dranney@khi.org
or at 785-233-5443, ext. 128.