An Addiction That Afflicts Us All : Everyone foots the huge bill imposed by the crack epidemic
Crack cocaine has been around for only a decade, but the cheap, potent and addictive high that it offers has destroyed countless individuals, plus whole families, neighborhoods, communities. The epidemic has also drained public coffers and overwhelmed public safety, public health and child welfare resources. It forces government to choose between improving schools, libraries and recreational facilities, for example, and stanching the flood of destruction caused by the drug abuse. It is a no-win choice.
The costs and consequences of crack are higher and affect American society more than is commonly understood, according to the Los Angeles Times series “The Real Cost of Crack,” by staff writers Rich Connell, Jesse Katz, David Ferrell and John Mitchell. The loss of public dollars reaches into the hundreds of millions.
Total taxpayer cost related to one addicted mother during her 10 years of abuse ranged from $250,000 to more than $300,000, according to the Times series. Providing for her three children in foster care amounted to $150,000. From $75,000 to $100,000 more was spent on medical expenses for the birth of one premature “crack baby.” Also add $25,000 for jail and prison costs stemming from arrests and eventual conviction on prostitution and drug-related charges. And, finally, add $15,000 for residential drug treatment, the best method of helping addicts recover. And all this is the public cost for only one family.
More treatment is clearly needed, particularly residential care. Unfortunately, the most prevalent public-funded treatment addresses not crack but heroin addiction or alcoholism. The state and county ought to throw out outdated assumptions and reconfigure priorities. If a crack addict wants to shake the habit, he or she needs help immediately. A state study proves that $1 spent on treatment can save $7.
Cocaine-addicted babies can’t escape the child abuse they suffered in the womb. These tiny victims are often born prematurely and in need of expensive neonatal care. Their ailments strain the public health system. Treating drug-exposed infants at Los Angeles County public hospitals is estimated to have cost $22 million in 1991, the most recent figure available. Children of addicted parents enjoy little sense of family or security. Usually, responsibility for them falls to a benevolent relative, the overburdened foster care system or the county’s crowded shelter, MacLaren Children’s Center. A new study by the county Department of Children’s Services of 613 youngsters in the system found at least one parent abusing crack in 44% of randomly selected cases. That finding explains why the child welfare caseload has doubled in the last decade, and why the related public spending exceeds $200 million. No one can deny the impact of crack addiction on violent crime. Crack-related arrests clog the courts, the jails and the prisons. Interdiction is a federal obligation, but the feds are unable to turn off the flow of illicit drugs into the country. Because the supply cannot be stopped, demand must be reduced through preventive efforts such as the DARE program for children and, of course, through widely available residential drug treatment.
The devastation of crack touches all Americans in some way. The problem is everybody’s problem.