Pubdate: Thu, 02 May 2002
Source: Blade, The (OH)
Copyright: 2002 The Blade
Contact:  http://www.toledoblade.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/48

FOR ISSUE 3

In next Tuesday's primary election, the Lucas County Alcohol and Drug 
Addiction Services Board's 0.5 mill, five-year, property levy is back on 
the ballot for the third time. The price is right for the return. It will 
cost the owner of a $50,000 home just $7.66 a year, and the benefits are 
substantial. We urge a vote FOR Issue 3.

The ADAS board, through 18 affiliated agencies, offers alcohol and drug 
prevention programs as well as intervention and treatment services, and it 
has liaisons with the local drug courts and correctional facilities.

Twice before, the voters have told ADAS no, and the sense was that people 
who abuse alcohol or drugs bring their miseries on themselves.

But even if that harsh judgment is so, it must be weighed against the role 
alcohol and drugs have traditionally been given in our society, and the 
fact that both are surreptitious in taking over individuals and turning 
them into addicts almost before they know it.

Few among us do not know someone with a dependency problem. They are family 
members and friends for whom most would, if they thought about it, gladly 
spend $8 to $16 a year to fix what ails them.

And no matter whose fault the addiction is, society pays one way or 
another, through the depredations of ill health, crime, destroyed family 
relationships, and devastated lives that will involve this group of people 
and spill over into the lives of the rest of us. We will be called on to 
pick up the pieces if we refuse to embrace prevention and treatment.

The ADAS board, with an operating budget of $7.5 million, most of it from 
state and federal sources, now gets $440,000 from a Lucas County Mental 
Health Board levy and another $225,000 from the Lucas County Department of 
Job and Family Services and Lucas County Children's Services.

But state funding has been cut, albeit modestly, while the demand for 
services keeps rising. The levy would bring in an added $3.9 million 
annually, the amount the board believes will close the gap between need and 
services.

The ADAS board has shown itself effective in partnering with community 
programs to heighten its effectiveness and theirs.

Passage of Issue 3 will fund an expansion of prevention services and 
treatment services on demand, which help decrease criminal behavior and 
health-care needs and ensure better school and work performance. Treatment 
programs could run longer, and there would be more intensive services for 
those who need them, as well as expanded efforts to involve family members 
in the alcoholic's or the addict's treatment, an important component in the 
process.

This is a levy that makes winners of everyone, those who pay and those who 
get the services. It came close to passing last time. This time the 
community would do itself a favor by putting Issue 3 over the top.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager