Pubdate: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 Source: Boston Globe (MA) Copyright: 2004 Globe Newspaper Company Contact: http://www.boston.com/globe/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52 Author: Carol Kowalski Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n485/a09.html?41685 DETOXIFICATION: COST EFFECTIVE "BOSTON'S heroin crisis" (editorial, March 25) outlining the mayor's good intentions presents only a Band-Aid. The festering of addiction problems will still be with us unless treated correctly. The most cost effective treatment of drug users is the detoxification system. This is the "best buy" in town. Some $200 a day brings an in-patient detoxification service that includes physician's monitoring, 24- hour nursing care, triage screening, medical history, and physical, psychosocial assessment, drug assessment, pregnancy testing, and screening for communicable diseases. Some $200 a day also brings HIV/AIDS education, nutritional teaching, individual and group counseling, relapse prevention skills, aftercare planning and case management, referral for homelessness and a support system for a continued drug free lifestyle. The effects from the implosion of this service due to state cuts in funding are beginning to be felt in all communities. The cost of hospital emergency rooms visits, increase in civil commitments, the added stress on the criminal justice system, the increase in communicable diseases, the loss of jobs and increasing homelessness, all due to the effects of substance use, will cost society much more than a $200 a day medical detoxification service. Addiction is a disease that affects the entire community. There should and must be a community outcry over the destruction of this vital in-patient detoxification service. Carol Kowalski Whitman The writer is a certified addiction registered nurse. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom