By the Oregonian’s editorial board, April 6 2009

Oregon is whacking away at drug and alcohol treatment, and crime, child neglect and homelessness are sure to rise

We’ve all but given up trying to convince Oregon lawmakers that it makes sense, morally and financially, to help people beat their drug and alcohol addictions rather than simply hold prison cells for them until they abuse their kids, break into houses or kill people in car accidents.

Maybe we can convince you.

Let’s start with this: Oregon has never, ever made a real commitment to drug and alcohol treatment. This state ranks 45th nationally for funded treatment access per capita. And now, even the relatively few overwhelmed, underfunded residential treatment programs that exist in Oregon have been zeroed out in Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s proposed two-year state budget.

Meanwhile, Multnomah County has put its pioneering and widely emulated drug court on the chopping block. And legislators in Salem are quietly reneging on the pre-election promise that the crime-fighting Measure 57, approved last fall, would include a doubling of drug and alcohol treatment for convicted offenders.

There is a good excuse for all these cuts, of course. The state and local government budgets are cratering, and there’s not even enough money for essential programs such as schools, human services and prisons. The state is facing a budget deficit that is expected to top $4 billion over the next two years. Lawmakers have no choice but to cut deeply into crucial programs, including drug and alcohol treatment.

Well, yes. But this state is not going to save money — not this year, not the next one, not ever — by leaving the 250,000 or so Oregonians who suffer from substance abuse or dependence alone to confront their screaming needs for drugs or alcohol.

Even now, while Oregon is managing to provide public funding for some level of treatment for about 64,500 people, untreated substance abuse is taking a massive toll on this state. The Oregon Department of Human Services estimates that untreated substance abuse costs Oregon $5.93 billion annually in health care, lost earnings, law enforcement, criminal justice and social welfare.

That number makes the $15 million a year that the state has put into residential drug treatment — matched by $9 million in federal funds — look like small beer. And speaking of beer, every time anyone dares to suggest that Oregon raise its very low beer tax by a few pennies a drink to help pay for drug and alcohol treatment, there’s a massive outcry. Oregonians have their priorities, and beer is one of them.

So are prisons, of course. We haven’t heard a peep from the public about the bait and switch on Measure 57. The promise of doubled drug and alcohol treatment probably was an unneeded sweetener for the measure; no one seems to much care now that it’s been promptly abandoned.

As we’ve noted before, the prevailing political view in this state is that nothing ails a person that a mandatory 60 months in a state prison cannot fix. That’s why Oregon now spends about the same amount on prisons as it does on higher education every year. And it’s why, when lawmakers start slashing state programs in the coming months, they will largely spare prisons while gutting services such as drug and alcohol treatment.

Then there’s this: Last year nearly 1,000 pregnant women entered publicly funded residential drug or alcohol treatment in Oregon. It’s likely another 1,000 will come behind them, needing the same help in the coming year.

If there’s no care for those women, no treatment, no help, nothing, what do you think lies ahead for those kids?

OUR COMMENT – Hear hear. Oregonians and their elected leaders remain steadfast and stupid on the issue of addiction treatment. Collectively, we despise addicts and alcoholics and want to punish them for their weakness. And we’ve proven our commitment to our ignorance by allowing the only acceptable “solution” to be jails, prisons, institutions, homelessness and death.