Letter: Cuts for Drug Treatment

The following letter appeared in the New York Times. Victor Capoccia is director of the Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap initiative at the Open Society Institute.

To the Editor:

“More Kids Dying” (editorial, July 18), about adolescent substance abuse, is especially timely.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois recently cut $55 million for state substance abuse treatment and prevention programs. That amount, with the resulting loss of federal matching money, represents half of the state’s treatment and prevention budget.

Given that only 10 percent of teenagers who need drug treatment receive it, cuts like these mean that thousands more adolescents will have no place to go for treatment.

Public policy on substance abuse should be based on a neurobiological understanding of addiction. Addiction is a chronic health condition that affects as many Americans as diabetes or hypertension, and addiction treatment has the same rate of compliance and effectiveness as these other illnesses.

But unlike other health conditions, the proportion of addiction treatment paid by insurance is decreasing, while dependence on government appropriations is increasing. Cutting public funds for addiction treatment further shortchanges this serious public health problem.

Victor A. Capoccia
Baltimore