Today, legislative budget writers are hearing all the different slices of the state budget that cover substance abuse treatment services, including Health & Welfare, Corrections, Juvenile Corrections, drug and mental health courts, and the Office of Drug Policy. Overall, this year's state appropriation for substance abuse treatment, from all funds, is $33 million; almost half of that comes from federal funds, while the rest is state general funds, Millennium Fund and other dedicated funds. The split of the funding among agencies is 50.9 percent at Health & Welfare; 22.3 percent at Corrections, 12.2 percent at Juvenile Corrections, and 14.6 percent in the courts.

Ross Edmunds, behavioral health division administrator at Health & Welfare, told JFAC, "Nine of 10 adult addicts started using before the age of 18. It certainly proves the old theory that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

The budget hearing covers functions that previously were under the Interagency Council on Substance Abuse; that council, which was formed in line with recommendations from an Office of Performance Evaluations report, operated for about five years but expired last year; so JFAC is holding the hearing to see how the new, more decentralized model is working between the various agencies. State law puts Health & Welfare in charge of the services overall, but the decentralized budget approach places the funding in the agencies for the populations they serve.