As the District struggles to solve long-standing substance abuse problems, officials have little information about drug and alcohol use to know whether new programs are helping D.C. conquer the dependencies.
In 2000, the District estimated 60,000 residents, or roughly 12 percent of the population, were substance abusers. As of 2003, according to federal studies, the percentage hadn’t changed. And no new local studies have been performed to quantify the number of users, though a new household survey is planned for next year. The lack of new substance abuse-related data “creates a challenging policymaking environment” for Mayor Anthony Williams’ Task Force on Substance Abuse, Prevention, Treatment and Control, according to the group’s 2005 annual report. The report found the District “is not making significant progress toward its goal of reducing the number of individuals dependent on or abusing alcohol or illicit drugs to 35,000 by 2010.”
Carol Ware, performance improvement and regulations officer with the District’s Addiction Prevention and Recovery Administration, said Friday several new initiatives give hope. The family treatment court andintensive residential program, for example, allows moms to stay with their children as they are treated for their addiction.
The city plans to launch therapeutic treatment communities in the D.C. Jail, Ware said. Another initiative will implement addiction help in homeless shelters, while the city continues to provide 900 slots in four methadone clinics.
“I see a lot of hope, but a lot of these things take funding,” Ware said. “They take a lot of additional training.”
Statistics indicate the District does not have an overdose problem like that in Baltimore, where drug-related deaths have fallen to their lowest number in 10 years, according to statistics released this week. Heroin, Baltimore’s biggest challenge, is deadlier than crack and cocaine, the District’s most vexing problem. The District recorded 105 overdose deaths in 2004, according to an article in April’s Psychiatric Times, which cited statistics from the Center for Substance Abuse at the University of Maryland.
