RSS Government Spends $468 Billion on Drug Abuse Costs
According to a recent report released by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) drug and alcohol use and addiction cost local, state and federal governments around $467.7 billion in 2005.
The new 287 page report entitled Shoveling Up II: The Impact of Substance Abuse on the Federal, State and Local Budgets, found that 96.5% of those funds or $357.4 billion went to handle the negative consequences of addiction including crime, homelessness, child abuse and welfare, and healthcare costs, to name a few.
But the biggest surprise is that only 1.9% of the funds went to drug rehab with even the Chairman of CASA agreeing that there has been a major shortage of appropriations to the right resources.
In the Chairman’s Statement, Joseph A. Califano Jr. announced that,
“Under any circumstances spending more than 95 percent of taxpayer dollars on the consequences of tobacco, alcohol and other drug abuse and addiction and less than two percent to relieve individuals and taxpayers of this burden would be considered a reckless misallocation of public funds.” He then went on to say, “In these economic times, such upside-down-cake public policy is unconscionable.”
And Mr. Califano is not the only one who can see that there has been a major problem in regards to substance abuse spending in our country. Politicians, private and public sector leaders are promoting the fiscal viability of effective drug rehabilitation programs. Erica Catton, Director of Public Services for Narconon Eastern U.S. agrees that the only way to fully handle addiction is through successful drug rehab practices. Having spent the last 8 years helping communities and families handle drug addiction, Mrs. Catton says,
“Cleaning up the mess that addiction causes without rehabilitating the individual will only create a bigger problem. Without effective treatment available, they will continue to create problems for themselves, their family and those around them. When you actually rehabilitate them through effective treatment, they will begin to clean up their own lives and the problems that they so often cause. The key is improving their abilities to handle life so they are no longer being controlled by their addiction.”
Since 1995 the Narconon program has graduated more than 25,000 addicts worldwide. The program has an average success rate of more than 70% for permanent sobriety. Narconon’s proven long-term social education model emphasizes handling both the mental and physical aspects of drug addiction with a focus on getting the addict back to being a sober and contributing member of society.
Effective drug rehabilitation is the main priority that local and federal governments will have to take up if they want to cut the huge costs created by addicts left on the community streets with no treatment options.
