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Updated:5/19/00 |
| Statement
and Proposed Amendment by Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota), May 17, 2000 May 17, 2000 Dear Colleague: The Senate will soon consider S 2522, the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, which provides $934 .1 million for the Administration's Colombia Plan. The Administration's Colombia Plan includes a dramatic increase in military spending for a 'Push Into Southern Colombia.' I am writing to request your support for an amendment I plan to offer on the floor that would transfer $225 million from the military purposes of the Push Into Southern Colombia to domestic substance abuse programs. The bulk of funding for the Administration's Colombia Plan focuses primarily on the supply side of the drug problem, while ignoring the severe emergency going on in our own country -- the emergency of drug addiction and the lack of treatment for those with this disease. We must insist that any effort to fight the drug problem in our country also include treatment. We must recognize that if addiction is not treated, demand will not lessen, and the associated problems and costs of the many resulting social problems -- such as crime, illness, child abuse, and unemployment -- will persist. As I have indicated in a previous Dear Colleague, my amendment will transfer $225 million in funds for military spending to domestic addiction treatment. Specifically, my amendment would transfer funds to the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant at SAMHSA, to provide desperately needed funds for state and local community-based programs and for drug treatment programs within correctional facilities. The Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant is the primary tool the federal government uses to support state substance abuse prevention and treatment programs, with funds going directly to states, which have broad discretion to decide how to use them. Because of the severe underfunding of addiction treatment In other health care delivery systems, states rely heavily on the block grant to provide services. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy acknowledges that more than half the adults in immediate need of treatment cannot receive treatment; this means more than 2 million adults who need treatment right now are not getting it. The situation is worse for our young people: 80 percent of adolescents who need treatment cannot get it. In some regions, the waiting list ts more than 6 months long. As of 1996, there were more than 13.6 million illicit drug users in the United States, and illegal drugs cost our society approximately $110 billion each year. Add alcohol addiction, and the costs soar to $246 billion. My amendment would result in an increase in the state block grant that would enable state and local communities to immediately begin to address these unmet needs, reduce the waiting lists, and enable people with addictions to get the medical treatment they need. We know that funding for addiction treatment is cost-effective. A landmark Rand study of cocaine markets shows that, dollar for dollar, providing treatment to cocaine users is 10 times more cost-effective than drug interdiction schemes, and 23 times more cost-effective than eradicating coca at its source. Until we devote adequate resources to drug treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention, drug users will continue to consume billions of dollars worth of drugs. We know treatment works. This is the great age of discovery in the field of neuroscience, as evidenced by the outstanding research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. We know more about how addiction affects the brain than we do about many diseases, and we know that these effects without treatment are serious, disabling, and long-lasting. Addiction is a chronic disease that needs careful monitoring by trained health care professionals, just like diabetes or any other chronic disease. Breakthroughs in treatment research have been made, and we know treatment works, but we must be able to get treatment to the people who need it. Treatment can make the difference. To join me in supporting this important legislation, or for more information, please contact me, or have your staff contact Jill Hickson or Ellen Gerrity in my office at 224-5641. Sincerely, Paul David Wellstone AMENDMENT NO. _____ Calendar No. ____ Purpose: To provide additional
funding for the substance IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES---106th Cong., 2d Sess. S.2522 Making appropriations for
foreign operations, export financ- Referred to the Committee
on ___________________________ Ordered to lie on the table and to be printed AMENDMENT intended to be proposed by ________ Viz: 1 On page 143, line 9, insert
before the period the fol- |
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