Pubdate: Sun, 23 Dec 2007
Source: Greensboro News & Record (NC)
Copyright: 2007 Greensboro News & Record, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.news-record.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/173
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

SCRATCHING THE SURFACE

The county still lacks a comprehensive anti-crack strategy. And it 
has chosen a new drug treatment agency based largely on anecdotal data.

"Crack is whack," the drug-addled star singer, Whitney Houston, once 
famously told a television interviewer.

Amen to that, say area law enforcement officials, who expressed 
concern last week about the potential early release of scores of 
crack cocaine offenders from prison.

Many said they feared that the more than 400-plus inmates from the 
Triad who may see their sentences reduced could pick up precisely 
where they left off, selling and using the viciously addictive drug.

In principle, the changes in federal sentencing guidelines are fair 
and reasonable. They shortened prison sentences for crack convictions 
to make them comparable to sentences for powdered cocaine, and also 
made them retroactive. That means some offenders will be eligible for 
early release. But will they be ready for lawful lives on the outside?

"Whatever the law is -- crack or powder cocaine -- I think we need to 
enforce it the same and be consistent," Sheriff BJ Barnes told the 
News & Record. "But I can tell you that you can make a lot of crack 
with a little powdered cocaine, and there are a lot of addicts out there."

Also last week, the Guilford commissioners heard a presentation from 
the operators of the soon-to-open drug treatment facility on West 
Wendover Avenue. Given the county's well-documented problems with 
crack addiction in particular, some critics question whether the 
operator of the center, Missouri-based Bridgeway Behavioral Health, 
is the right agency. They also question whether its new treatment 
model is the right approach.

The facility will treat crack addicts, among others. Yet, even if it 
is successful, the center will make only a small dent in the county's 
crack epidemic. The county still needs a broader, more urgent 
strategy to stem crack use and the crime, disease, prostitution and 
homelessness it breeds here.

To their credit, mental health officials have crafted a new drug 
treatment model that stresses partnerships and intervention. But how 
much of that plan is funded and implemented and at what pace is not clear.

At the commissioners' meeting on Dec. 13, several additional 
questions surfaced:

* Why couldn't Bridgeway provide hard data on the effectiveness of 
its treatment programs beyond assurances by its COO, Mike Morrison, 
that "we're good." He's from Missouri; surely he could show us how 
good they are.

* Where is a viable local option for long-term residential care? With 
only 56 available beds, only some of which will be devoted to crack 
treatment, the Bridgeway facility can't begin to scratch the surface.

Paul Nagy, a Duke University consultant, cited TROSA, or Triangle 
Residential Options for Substance Abusers, in Durham, as an option 
during the commissioners' meeting. But he conceded last week via 
e-mail that TROSA "is only able to accept a limited number of these 
individuals due to capacity and type of patient the program can 
effectively serve."

* Finally, the proponents of the new center argue that long-term 
residential treatment is necessary only for some patients. They cite 
research to support that view. But doesn't that same research also 
say that long-term residential treatment is more effective with poor 
and homeless patients, which describes the majority of crack addicts 
in the county?

Duke's Nagy agreed. However, he said in an e-mail that "supportive 
housing can also be offered in lieu of expensive residential 
treatment." Yet many of those programs already are strained to capacity.

Despite those loose ends, the commissioners seem intent on moving 
ahead with the facility anyway. County mental health Director Billie 
Martin Pierce and her staff told the commissioners that Bridgeway 
will be held to strict accountability measures even though it 
produced very little such data to the commissioners. County leaders 
owe it to the taxpayers to hold fast to those benchmarks.

If Bridgeway doesn't show the results, the county should show 
Bridgeway the door.

[Sidebar]

WHAT'S BEEN SAID

"Sometimes I get the feeling that everybody but me is using it." -- 
Elton Turnbull, a convicted drug smuggler, on the extent of crack use 
in Guilford County (2004)

"Crack cocaine remains a plague which affects some of our most 
vulnerable neighborhoods and citizens."

George S.B. Holding, U.S. attorney for the state's Eastern District 
(December 2007)

"Programs such as Fellowship Hall, Mary's House, Malachi House, 
Caring Services, Alcohol and Drug Services, and numerous others are 
all excellent. But what we need is more long-term residential care." 
- -- Jim Van Hecke, a drug treatment consultant hired by the Guilford 
Substance Abuse Coalition (2004)

"There's no agreement that certain drugs require certain amounts of 
time." -- Joe Fortin, a substance abuse "best practices" specialist 
with The Guilford Center (2007) 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake