Report Title:

DRUG TREATMENT; DRUG PREVENTION

WHEREAS, upon his impending departure as director of national drug control policy, General Barry R. McCaffrey stated that the solution to drug abuse and its social consequences, including, a drain on taxpayer dollars and social violence, lay in drawing addicts into effective drug treatment; and

WHEREAS, best estimates from studies state that for every one dollar spent on drug treatment, there are societal cost savings of four to seven dollars; and

WHEREAS, numerous studies show that effective drug treatment reduces drug use by at least fifty percent, reduces arrest rates for violent and nonviolent criminal acts by forty percent or more, reduces the risk of HIV infection, reduces rates of recidivism by fifty percent or more, and significantly improves the lives of the addict as well as the family of the addict and community; and

WHEREAS, drug prevention programs provide even more societal cost savings due to the scale of the education programs, media reach, and reductions in the amount of money spent on treatment as well as the costs of social consequences; and

WHEREAS, General McCaffrey oversaw a one hundred eighty five million dollar advertising campaign dissuading teens from experimenting with drugs; and

WHEREAS, on a national level, drug use by teenagers declined by twenty one percent over the two year period of the campaign; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, finds that increased funding of effective drug prevention and treatment programs of all types, including faith based programs, provide an effective and fiscally sound approach towards combating drug use in our state; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii supports increased funding of effective drug treatment and prevention programs of all types; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the director of the Department of Health, the director of Public Safety, and the Governor.