MAHONING COUNTY Drug problems remain serious, leader asserts

There are 3,451 Mahoning County residents who need comprehensive treatment.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- The first Mahoning County Drug Summit is seen as a jumping off point for developing a comprehensive drug-control strategy.
Despite many successful efforts, Mahoning County continues to have serious drug-related problems, David L. Schaffer, executive director of the Mahoning County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board, said Friday in his opening remarks at the summit.
Schaffer said the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services has identified 3,451 county residents who need comprehensive substance abuse treatment. Fewer are in the system, so there obviously some service gaps, he said.
People needing services have been placed on a waiting list, demonstrating an "unacceptable" lack of capacity, Schaffer said, adding one-third of high school seniors surveyed here had used marijuana within the last year, indicating that the drug problem is not going away.
There have been successes because of collaborations among agencies, law enforcement and courts, but the hope is to improve in that area, beginning with the drug summit, he said.
What is in the pipeline for America demonstrates the need for paying more attention and working better together on treating the drug problem, said David A. Deitch, a clinical and social psychologist and a professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego.
Alcohol factor
Deitch, keynote speaker for the summit, said there is a growing "critical mass" of people using and abusing drugs, and that doesn't include the biggest problem of all -- alcohol.
Also very serious, he said, is the rise in violent crimes, often complicated by drug use, and huge numbers of prisoners, 635,000 in 2001, who are being released annually.
The summit focused on substance abuse prevention, treatment, interdiction techniques, alternative sentencing and drug courts.
Issue 1
In the morning drug court session, which became kind of a campaign against state Issue I on the election ballot Tuesday, Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, said it is good communication between law enforcement, prosecutors and court and the treatment providers that fuel drug court successes.
If passed, Issue I would remove the option of a prison sentence for first- and second-time offenders and seriously undermine drug courts, said Atty. Linda S. Martin-Saunders, part-time assistant prosecutor.
"We need that hammer, or people won't show up for their treatments," she said.
Judge Durkin, who established the county's first drug court, said passage of Issue I would have a chilling effect on prosecution and communication that makes effective treatment possible.
Schaffer thinks the sometimes fragmented drug treatment system can find better ways of communicating and be more creative in using resources.
He said the next step is to develop a comprehensive report on how to address the problems of drug prevention, interdiction and treatment.
alcorn@vindy.com