Illinois to cut all funding for drug and prevention programs as of 3/15

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Borrowing trouble: Gov. Quinn's dangerous plan to slash drug treatment programs.


It’s almost impossible to be too cynical about politics, particularly Illinois politics. Consider that late Friday — the traditional time for releasing information that you hope people won’t notice — Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration announced that effective March 15, the state no longer will pay for drug treatment and prevention programs.

Instead, the state will pass through only the Medicaid funding, meaning that 55,000 people will be thrown out of drug treatment centers; 32,000 of them are under age 21.

The state spends $53 million a year on such programs. Mr. Quinn previously had announced that his fiscal 2012 budget would eliminate that spending. But on Friday, he decided to speed things up, whacking the program for the remainder of FY 2011, which runs through June 30. That would “save” the state about $15 million.

Some savings. Studies have shown that each dollar spent on drug treatment eventually saves between $11.35 to $18.52 in “societal costs.” Such costs include law enforcement, the criminal justice system, incarceration and lost workplace productivity.

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http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/article_709b05dc-3e10-11e0-a3fa-00127992bc8b.html

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