It’s better for everyone to treat rather than jail drug addicts
Our state elected leaders have been struggling with budget numbers for months. As an administrator for TASC, which places and monitors court-ordered individuals into drug treatment, I’d like to offer some important numbers that may help clarify the picture:
1,500: Number of Illinois residents ordered to drug treatment by the
courts who have been terminated prematurely from TASC services due to budget cuts.
1,000: People referred by the courts for TASC addiction assessments who
either are waiting in jail or are in the community unmonitored.
$10,800: Estimated daily cost to taxpayers as judges currently hold more
than 125 individuals in county jails without TASC’s services.
139: Statewide TASC staff currently on furlough without pay.
34: TASC staff, including myself, currently working at minimum wage so we can keep skeleton services in place.
$73.5 million: Federal money that Illinois stands to lose due to state funding cuts to drug treatment.
8: TASC services with drug treatment are eight times cheaper than prison.
14: Days beyond the June 30 budget deadline that legislators are allowing to lapse before resuming their attempts to hammer out the state budget.
TASC clients have better outcomes than those who don’t get TASC. We have consistently upheld our responsibilities to our clients, our communities, and our fellow taxpayers. We implore our state legislators and the Governor Pat Quinn to do the same.
Anthony Gonzales
Administrator, Area 9
TASC, INC.
Edwardsville
Jimmy, my tongue was firmly in cheek on the prisons comment…
As far as the “hard stuff” goes (and less so for pot) the question of how to regulate sales is one that will take some work. I know that some states (Ohio and New Hampshire are two that I know of) only allow sales of hard liquor (anything distilled, pretty much) at State stores. Maybe that is the easiest way. That way, the excise tax would be paid directly to the agency that would try to collect it.
By the way, one of the biggest problems with street meth, for example, are the impurities from basement manufacture. If it was manufactured under controlled, sanitary conditions, I’d suggest that a lot of the really bad problems would vanish.
I can’t really disagree with you anywhere in that Hs, but you know as well as I do if we have State run convienence stores selling us booze and drugs, the republicans will cry conspiracy that the evil liberal oppression is just dumbing us down even more for our imprisonment and eventual world uniformity.
But let em, I’ll just smile and laugh while I’m playing my guitar.