Let One Addiction Fight Others

What to do with a smoke-tinged windfall of $233 million, Ventura County’s anticipated cut of the $206 billion 36-state tobacco settlement?

If Attorney General Dan Lungren accepts the deal rather than holding out for a bigger jackpot, as some state officials favor, the county’s share of the loot will arrive in shipments of $9.32 million each year until 2025, with no legal strings attached. It can be spent in any county department--and all of them are sure to lobby hard for the budget bonus.

The decision rests with the Board of Supervisors, which never lacks for good (and sometimes bad) ideas about how to spend money. In this case we side with the supervisors who favor spending most of this money for its theoretically intended purpose: reimbursing agencies that have had to carry the financial burden of caring for people whose health problems were caused by smoking cigarettes.

But there are some closely related needs that merit a look too.

One example: It would make perfect sense to use a little of the windfall to continue the county’s existing tobacco education and control program, if the $250,000 the county receives from the state for that program runs out as expected in 2001.

Another: Although cigarette smoking may not be their most serious substance problem, it would be logical to use some of this money to assist homeless people addicted to alcohol or other drugs.

Just last week the city of Ventura appointed a panel of council members and staff to meet with county officials to discuss creating a series of drug- and alcohol-treatment centers for the homeless. The shortage of such facilities is one root of the ongoing dispute between city and county over who has responsibility for sheltering this persistently problematic population.

The Times has argued in the past that this countywide problem demands a countywide strategy. We believe each city should contribute to the effort, financially as well as with services and facilities. But we hope the supervisors will view the bit of budgetary slack created by the tobacco settlement money as an opportunity to address this immediate need right away.