Pubdate: Thu, 07 Dec 2000
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2000 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  501 N. Calvert Street P.0. Box 1377 Baltimore, MD 21278
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Author: Scott Shane

DRUGS A COSTLY PROBLEM FOR CITY

Raising Alcohol Tax To Finance Increase In Treatment Urged

A new study pegs the cost of Baltimore's drug problem at $2.5 billion a 
year, a sum larger than the city's $1.8 billion budget, encompassing 
everything from addicts' shoplifting and overflowing prisons to treatment 
of needle-transmitted AIDS and foster care for abandoned children.

While praising the city's recent expansion of drug treatment, the report 
declares that achieving "treatment on request" - defined as a treatment 
slot within 48 hours for anyone seeking it voluntarily or under court order 
- - will require a doubling of slots. It recommends paying for the expansion 
by raising Maryland's alcohol tax, among the lowest in the nation.

The report, the result of a yearlong study by a Washington research group, 
was released yesterday at a news conference attended by Lt. Gov. Kathleen 
Kennedy Townsend and Mayor Martin O'Malley in a show of city-state amity.

O'Malley used the occasion to underscore that he is seeking $17 million 
more in annual drug-treatment money from the state, in addition to the $8 
million increase received this year.

"We are proud that the census called Maryland the wealthiest state in the 
nation," O'Malley said. "We're not so proud that the Drug Enforcement 
Administration said Baltimore is the most addicted major city in America.

"We have an opportunity to achieve historic reductions in violent crime and 
the violence of addiction," the mayor said.

Townsend, while praising the mayor's "energy and passion," said she favors 
an increase in treatment spending but declined to commit to the full $17 
million for Baltimore. She noted that the $8 million boost this year, part 
of an $18.5 million increase in drug-treatment funding statewide, is the 
largest increase ever.

"For too long in too many Maryland communities, it's been easier to find 
drugs than to find drug treatment," Townsend said at the news conference at 
Tuerk House, a West Baltimore treatment facility. "That is unacceptable."

The report was written by Drug Strategies, a nonprofit research institute 
in Washington that has produced reports on drug problems in Detroit, 
Washington and several states. The Baltimore report was paid for by grants 
from the Abell Foundation and the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, both of 
which have put money into improving drug treatment.

The report gathers statistics, some of them drearily familiar, for a stark 
portrait of a city where an estimated 1 in 8 adults is an addict. Among the 
findings:

Heroin continues to dominate the city's drug scene, with a heroin addiction 
rate 15 times higher than the national average. The price of heroin in 
Baltimore, low by national standards, fell by a third last year.

Baltimore police made an average of 49 drug arrests a day in 1998. Of 
adults arrested for all crimes, two-thirds of men and three-quarters of 
women tested positive for at least one drug, not including alcohol, 
according to a 1995 study.

Last year, Baltimore spent $415 per resident on policing and court costs, 
compared with $47 per resident on drug treatment. Those spending priorities 
are self-defeating, the report suggests, because two-thirds of untreated 
parolees with a history of cocaine or heroin use return to drug use within 
three months of release.

As burdened as Baltimore is by narcotics, the report says the city has 
emerged in recent years as a national leader in building a treatment 
system. Saying Baltimore is "at the forefront of drug policy innovation," 
the report lauds the city for increasing treatment funding.

The push for expanding treatment began under former Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, 
who in 1996 shifted funds from several city departments to roughly double 
the treatment budget. Though critical of Schmoke's earlier call for 
decriminalization of drugs, O'Malley retained Schmoke's health 
commissioner, Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, and has been even more outspoken than 
his predecessor in demanding more money from the state for treatment.

Last month, O'Malley publicly criticized Townsend and Gov. Parris N. 
Glendening for what he considered unnecessary delay in releasing the 
additional $8 million for treatment in the city.

"It is unconscionable that the state with the most wealth in the nation 
would allow this addiction to go on," he said.

The $8 million has since been released. But the Drug Strategies report says 
it is not nearly enough to achieve "treatment on request."

The report notes that what the city spent on drug treatment last year - $28 
million - was only enough to serve about one-third of residents who need 
rehabilitation. And of those slots, very few are long-term residential 
placements, the most expensive and most effective kind.

As a source for new money, Drug Strategies identifies the state's excise 
tax on alcoholic beverages. It says no state has a lower tax on hard 
liquor; Maryland's is $1.50 per gallon compared with a U.S. median in 1998 
of $3.25.

The report says increasing the excise tax by 1 cent per drink would produce 
$18 million a year in revenue. It suggests phasing in a 5-cent increase 
over five years.

But the report notes the political difficulty of overcoming opposition from 
makers of alcoholic beverages, liquor store operators and bar and 
restaurant owners, who together wield formidable power in the General Assembly.
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