State needs more drug treatment, group says
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
The number of adults admitted to publicly financed treatment programs for crystal methamphetamine use nearly doubled since 1998, a state health official told lawmakers yesterday.
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Elaine Wilson, chief of the Department of Health's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division, said there were 1,423 adults in treatment primarily for ice in 1998, compared with 2,730 adults in 2002.
"I'm fairly optimistic in the sense that this is a problem that is hitting communities and communities are getting riled up about it," said Sen. Colleen Hanabusa.
Those statistics were among the many Wilson and others described to a legislative panel in spelling out the importance of more drug treatment to address Hawai'i's ice problem.
But how the state would pay for such treatment is going to be a challenge, said Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, co-chairwoman of the Joint House-Senate Task Force on Ice and Drug Abatement.
"Money's a major problem, and I think that no matter what we all say about ice and so forth, this issue is going to be the old adage of let's put our money where our mouth is, because that's what it's going to come down to," said Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha).
But, she said: "I'm fairly optimistic in the sense that this is a problem that is hitting communities and communities are getting riled up about it. ... I think people are going to be yelling and screaming, and rightfully so, and elected officials are going to have to respond."
Hanabusa has not heard an estimate on what the cost of sufficient drug treatment would be.
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Wilson cited a 1998 survey that found about 82,880 adults need alcohol and/or drug treatment. Wilson said the wait list for publicly financed adult substance-abuse treatment has been between 150 and 300 people a day for at least the past decade.
Elaine Wilson, chief of the Department of Health's Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division, told a House-Senate task force that substance-abuse treatment can save in future healthcare costs.
Wilson also said lawmakers should require health insurance companies to offer the same coverage for substance-abuse treatment as they do for other health problems.
"Most people who have substance-abuse disorders are in your workplace," Wilson said. "So if you had parity, you could get people treatment sooner and you could get more of them treatment."
Substance-abuse treatment reduces drug use and crime by up to 60 percent, Wilson said. Every dollar spent on treatment can save $12 in future healthcare costs, she said.
State Department of Public Safety director John Peyton said he is re-evaluating some of the department's drug-treatment policies, including the practice that inmates only receive drug treatment when they reach the last two years of their sentence.
Deputy Director Frank Lopez said there is a waiting list of inmates who need drug treatment and that sometimes inmates are released without completing any substance-abuse program.
Dr. Chris Derauf, director of the Integrated Pediatric Residency Program at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, said up to 510 births in Hawai'i are potentially affected by ice use during pregnancy.
Derauf, who is involved in a controlled study that looks into the effects of drug use on babies, said other factors associated with ice use, such as family disruption, negligence and violence, also have a major effect on a child's development.
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
