Sonny Perdue's 2009 budget cuts on Substances Abuse Services would not be so sad if the cuts were actually going to be cost effective, but they will not save the state of Georgia any money.  Unfortunately, for Sonny Perdue, the Governor of Georgia, the cost of providing room and board to non-violent substance abusing inmates is higher than the cost of teaching them to become tax paying productive citizens.

CONSEQUENCES OF TREATMENT & FAILURE TO TREAT SUBSTANCE ABUSE

The number of former drug users presently working as Substance Abuse Professionals within the addiction field is proof enough that treatment works for many, while housing people in jails and prisons is expensive, and generally prepares them only to become more efficient criminals.  Unless treatment options (many of which the budget cuts terminated) are available within the criminal justice system for those sentenced to jails and prisons for drug related crimes, they will most likely return to the community to cost the state more money.  Addicts cost the state millions annually in criminal justice and health care costs, and Substance Abuse Treatment is the least costly consequence of the addiction process.

THOSE WHO DO NOT LEARN FROM HISTORY ARE DOOMED TO REPEAT IT

During the Great Depression , one commodity that continued to increase in sales was alcohol, and there is no reason to believe that today's troubled economy will yield different results.  Street drug sales will also most likely increase, causing crime to rise and the cost of the criminal justice system to skyrocket.  Our choice is clear.   We can either pay more to house and create more hardened criminals, or we can pay less to encourage recovery and responsible citizenship.

IS SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT EFFECTIVE?

Substance Abuse Treatment is not 100 percent effective, but neither is prison, and one costs the state more in dollars and cents than does the other.  It takes the average tobacco smoker seven attempts before he or she is able to remain nicotine free, and people who suffer from obesity generally go up and down the scales in body weight repeatedly throughout their lives.  Still, many eventually make positive changes that last, without the necessity of prison time.  Addiction is difficult to treat  or overcome whether it involves food, tobacco, alcohol, prescription, or street drugs.  The state will not save money housing these people in jail.  it would be cheaper to treat them for the rest of their lives, in hopes that they would eventually come around.

PERDUE'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO UNEMPLOYMENT & OTHER PROBLEMS IN GEORGIA

Meanwhile there is additional unemployment in Georgia, of people who have been productive tax paying citizens, and who were already being paid very poorly, based on their level of education, and the importance of their work.  Cutting services to vulnerable Americans has not worked in the past, and it will not work in today's troubled economy.  It will instead increase unemployment, crime, hopelessness, drug abuse and addiction, indigent healthcare costs, and poverty, none of which will improve the physical or fiscal state of Georgia.