Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 Source: Boston Herald (MA) Copyright: 2001 The Boston Herald, Inc Contact: One Herald Square, Boston, MA 02106-2096 Website: http://www.bostonherald.com/ Author: Ed Hayward ADDICTIONS SLAM STATE FOR BILLIONS EVERY YEAR The demons of booze, drugs and tobacco cut a devastating swath through Massachusetts every year, pushing state spending on the ravaging effects of addictions to $2.7 billion a year, according to a survey released yesterday. The $2.7 billion spent in 1998 added up to about 17.4 percent of the state budget, or $442 per person, the study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found. ``Substance abuse is one of the major public health challenges of our time,'' said Public Health Commissioner Dr. Howard K. Koh. ``It affects every community and virtually every family. Its effects such as violence, traffic accidents, health problems, crime and the future of children are potentially devastating.'' Gov. Paul Cellucci said Massachusetts' high level of spending showed money wasn't the only answer. ``What the report indicates is, it's not from lack of resources or trying,'' Cellucci said. ``It's that these are troubling addictions. They've been with us a long time.'' The Bay State expenditure of $442 per person ranked fifth behind Washington, D.C., Alaska, Delaware and New York, researchers found. Of the $2.7 billion spent in Massachusetts in 1998, roughly one-third was spent on jails and prisons, juvenile justice and the courts. While crime and substance abuse appear inextricably linked, Northeastern University criminologist Jack Levin said the violent business of the drug trade wreaks more havoc than the mind-altering properties of narcotics. ``Just because drugs and crime are connected doesn't mean one causes the other,'' said Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Violence at Northeastern. ``But the drug industry has played a major role in determining the crime rate in this country. When it comes to the chemical effects, I think drugs and alcohol play a limited role.'' Nationally, states spent $81.3 billion dealing with substance abuse in 1998 - or about 13 percent of their total spending of $620 billion, the study said. By comparison, states spent on average 13.1 percent of their budgets on higher education, 11.3 percent on Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and disabled, and 8.3 percent on transportation. Massachusetts was second only to New York in the proportion of money spent on battling the effects of substance abuse. New York spent 18 percent of its budget, or $8.7 billion, on dealing with the effects of substance abuse. ``Substance abuse and addiction is the elephant in the living room of state government, creating havoc with service systems, causing illness, injury and death and consuming increasing amounts of state resources,'' said Joseph A. Califano Jr., the center's president. The new study relied on data from the states about their spending on prevention programs, research and health care costs directly related to substance abuse. Then it estimated the indirect effects of substance abuse. In schools, for example, costs were estimated for special education for children with fetal alcohol syndrome born to mothers who drank while pregnant. Koh said the state's public health department spends $97 million in federal and state money on programs for treatment and prevention. This year, the department plans to expand its successful anti-tobacco advertising campaign with warnings to teens about drug and alcohol abuse. ``Alcohol is still the number one drug being abused,'' said Koh. ``Addiction is too often seen first as a crime problem. But foremost it is a brain disease that needs appropriate treatment.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Kirk Bauer