Number of Child Addicts Surges as Funds for Treatment Run Dry
EmailMoney is "drying up" for a program that treats kids addicted to the lethal heroin amalgam called "cheese" that has rapidly spread among Texas youth, and drug counselors fear the problem will go national if it is not eliminated. "The bottom line is these kids need treatment and they can’t get what they need. Kids doing heroin every day—outpatient care is not an option," said Michelle Hemm, Director of the Dallas Phoenix House rehabilitation center for adolescents.
The drug, a mixture of heroin and Tylenol PM, has killed 21 teens in Dallas and surrounding areas since 2005, and the Blotter on ABCNews.com reported last year that children as young as ten years old have become addicted. Drug enforcement agents in other states including California and Missouri and in Canada are reportedly keeping an eye out for the potent concoction. Drug counselors in Dallas say they are forced to treat kids who desperately need residential care as outpatients because of stingy managed care companies and lack of state funds. "Just last week we had eight kids who would meet criteria for residential sent to outpatient—so that’s the level of [existing] care ," said Hemm.
Hemm said that though the state allocates $500,000 annually to the Dallas facility, a managed behavioral health care program called Value Option Northstar decides whether funding for a teen will encompass in- or outpatient care. Before the state contracted Value Option Northstar to manage Dallas and five other Texas counties, the Dallas Phoenix House would be home to patients for nine weeks. Now, Hemm said, after four to five weeks Value Option Northstar forces the center to discharge the teens. A Value Option spokesman said the funds they allocate for in- and outpatient care are based on criteria set forth by the state."A more prudent course of action is to shorten the period of inpatient care and then gradually step down the care. It’s not just 60 days and you’re out the door," the spokesman said. The Phoenix House facility in Austin is outside the scope of the Value Option Northstar program, and receives $1.5 million for residential care directly from the state (recently down from $2 million). Austin has not been hit by the devastating "cheese" phenomenon, according to law enforcement. Hemm is scheduled to meet with Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, today to discuss funding for the Dallas program. Last month Cornyn added a measure to an existing bill that puts "cheese" on the list of illegal drugs in the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which will allocate funds for "anti-cheese" commercials and other public awareness efforts. "A public awareness campaign is key to correcting this misconception [that 'cheese' is not dangerous] and reversing the tide of this dangerous new drug," said Cornyn. Hemm said she hopes Cornyn will see that Dallas rehabilitation centers "on the ground" are overwhelmed and need the funding to treat teens who are already addicted to this lethal drug. Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.
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When are we going to recognize that treatment rarely works?
Once people get on drugs, there is little turning back, and little reason for keeping those pathetic creatures around.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | July 9, 2007, 11:10 am 11:10 am
Why should the state pay for irresponsible parenting? Your kid gets hooked, you pay for it. Why is that so hard for folks to understand?
Posted by: nicole | July 9, 2007, 12:22 pm 12:22 pm
we now have a new drug of the decade, treatment works, if its available and not regulated by the insurance companies
Posted by: treatment advocate | July 9, 2007, 2:45 pm 2:45 pm
With the borders wide open, more drugs are being imported now than ever before. Who cares about some creepy fool that gets “hooked”. Let them do whatever and then SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!
Posted by: artist22 | July 9, 2007, 4:42 pm 4:42 pm
Let’s beat this now America I want you to understand that the youth is worth saving and a national program is needed in North America. I would like to see a national treasure trail built by youth in a quest to rehabilitate many drug addicted youth without using prisons. This removes them from more harm and gives a chance for the ones who reach out to over come many addictions. There release dates or movements on the trail can be controlled by themselves with drug testing, and isolates where drugs are entering the system.
Posted by: Paul Belair | July 10, 2007, 11:34 am 11:34 am
People who make blanket statements like “Treatment doesn’t work” without backing up their statements with valid proof mostly fall into two categories: 1)People working for the insurance companies whose job it is to spread misinformation, and 2) People who made a half assed attempt at treatment and failed. Since they failed, then treatment couldn’t possibly work for others.
Posted by: marcos | July 10, 2007, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm
and artist22, you are awesome! Is there any issue that you cannot turn into an anti-immigration issue? It’s like a magical power you have, to filter everything thru your anti-immigration lens. I would love to find out how global warming is caused by immigration next.
Posted by: marcos | July 10, 2007, 1:04 pm 1:04 pm
Anyone who thinks that drug addiction only affects the addict is probably ignorant (not the same as stupid, for those of you who actually are too stupid to know the difference). An addict has family, friends, and coworkers who also suffer due to the addiction. An addict lives in a community with children, elderly, and hardworking folks. Addiction causes people to steal, loiter, litter, burglarize, assault, prostitute, vandalize, and neglect their community and loved ones. DUI related fatalities of sober drivers are not uncommon. Addiction affects us all, whether we are users or sober community members. We are all in it together.
Posted by: bluegrrl | July 10, 2007, 5:57 pm 5:57 pm
The fundamental problem with the drug war is that the more we spend on it the more drugs appear on our streets. It is obvious that our criminalized system does not work. It did not work for booze and it will not work for illicit drugs.
Our nations policies on drugs has spread corruption and created a model of distribution in which the drug barons reap huge profits. Our system favors incarceration over treatment, despite the fact that in many prisons, drugs are easier to procure than on our city streets.
Most likely almost 100% of this heroin is derived from Afghan poppies. The Afghans now produce over 80% of the worlds heroin poppies. My Army buddies tell me of patrolling vast poppy and pot fields in Afghanistan and they are in no way allowed to destroy them because they belong to powerful opium warlords whom remain shaky anti-Taliban allies.
Its easy to blame the victims of an irrational drug policy; surely the blame resides, in a degree to the addict. However the fact remains that more people die from legal drugs every year than all illegal drugs combined. Vioxx was blamed for over 100,000 deaths and it took years to get it off the market.
It is common sense for one to assume that if drugs can make it in, so can the terrorists. If there is one thing for sure, this administration does not seem at all interested in securing our borders. Security starts at home.
Posted by: Silent$oldier | July 10, 2007, 11:13 pm 11:13 pm
This administration certainly isn’t interested in securing our boarders as they are a source of cheap labor. As far as security they’ve done everything imaginable to make the world less safe.
All of the 9-11 hijackers came to this country legally in the comfort of an aircraft, why would they go to the Mexican desert?
War on drugs… it’s the only war going worse than the war in Iraq. What a waste.
Posted by: donny | July 11, 2007, 2:35 am 2:35 am
OH! I get it now. Because the funding is lower, these kids start using heroin. They see that there is less money, so they start using heroin.
Liberals are a big, fat, stinkin’ joke.
Posted by: MarcG | July 13, 2007, 1:56 pm 1:56 pm
“Number of Child Addicts Surges as Funds for Treatment Run Dry”
Unfortunately open society leaves girls in tender age to sex predators.
While there is no law to check open sex, young moms will be losers due to aftermath of leaky condom or lack there of.
While there might be little help in the name of child support for the moms, Family binding and place called home is not available to 1/3rd of Americans. Problem is wrongly attributed to poverty or lack of education.
Government laws are non supportive of family well being, hence need of immigrants to keep small business from extinction in North America.
Government funding to support medical need for mental illness among children is like treating viral fever with aspirin and ignoring surroundings to correct root cause.
Political interest is on preemptive for less likely events than the social cancer.
Posted by: fixhist | July 14, 2007, 3:00 am 3:00 am
Reading some of the responses,shows me that “SOME SO CALLED AMERICANS” feel it’s ok to think like the rest of the world……so sad…..no matter who’s fault it is these kids are getting hooked…..BY GOD, THEY’RE AMERICANS….just as their grandfathers and great grandfathers, ect. were. How many of these kids had family lost in a war so we all can express ourselves here.
Posted by: dan | July 14, 2007, 5:37 pm 5:37 pm
There IS treatment for heroin addiction. It’s called methadone and it works. Setting aside those who whine that “it’s replacing one drug with another”, methadone has had the best results of any heroin addiction treatment since it’s inception in the early 70s. The “war on drugs” is failing because it doesn’t exist. Most of the billions spent on this so-called war are sent to foreign nations. Free treatment doesn’t exist for the most part. You’d almost think that the government WANTED the uneducated to become addicted so they don’t notice that their birthrights are being sent to China while they can forget ever having a decent paying job. Good jobs for the non-college educated are leaving the country so fast that it’s a crime. As if only those who go to college are entitled to their piece of the American Dream.
Posted by: DougW | July 18, 2007, 9:53 am 9:53 am