Deseret News | Lawmakers find no funds to reform drug offenders

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Lawmakers find no funds to reform drug offenders

Sponsor says DORA would have saved the state millions

By Geoffrey Fattah and Lisa Riley Roche
Deseret Morning News

Published: Monday, Feb. 28, 2005 11:19 p.m. MST

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There is the possibility that DORA could pass, but it would take a House representative to sponsor the bill for a full vote in the House. Just before the Senate adjourned Monday, Buttars responded to an impasse with the House over its decision to fund a veterans nursing home by saying, "if they're going to get the nursing home, we get DORA." Although another senator endorsed the idea, it's not clear it will go anywhere.

"I don't want to give up just yet," said Pat Flemming, former state substance abuse director and current director of Salt Lake County Substance Abuse. "The key is trying to broker a deal" between the House and Senate, Flemming said.

Buttars said because the House is holding his bill, he hasn't been able to amend it to limit the program "to one year only; there'd be no new money unless there was additional legislation" to give the program a chance to prove itself.

About 4,000 probationers would be treated, he said. "It's a good test because those probationers are re-offending at a rate of about 66 percent. If you give it a year and all at once it drops, like we said it does, to 30 percent, then you'd have all those beds that didn't get re-filled."

Although Buttars said his proposed amendment came at the governor's request, Chaffetz said that was up to lawmakers. "We've made it clear we're supportive, but it's really their decision."

Experts said the consequences of not passing DORA are real. Already many drug treatment programs across the state have waiting lists of court referrals that span months.

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That means individuals who are pushed into crime by drug addiction don't receive the help they need.

"We're faced with a situation where we've got growing referrals from the criminal justice system and we don't have the resources to adequately treat them," said Brent Kelsey, justice program manager for the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health.

Without DORA, or any other kind of substance abuse treatment funding, the waiting lists will simply grow longer, Kelsey said.

E-mail: gfattah@desnews.com; lisa@desnews.com