Last updated at 16:22, Tuesday, 31 July 2012 THE cost to the taxpayer for supporting drug addicts and alcoholics across Barrow, South Lakeland and Copeland through benefits is a staggering 32,000 a week. Figures released by the government show the total includes people on Incapacity Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance where they cite the primary reason for claiming the benefit is alcoholism or drug problems. Also included are payments for people claiming the lowest level of one of the two Disability Living Allowance (DLA) components at 20.55 a week. The actual total for Barrow, Copeland and South Lakeland could be up to 10,000 higher depending on what level and components of DLA the 90 claimants across the three areas qualify for. The annual cost for the three areas is 1.66m 739,024 for Barrow, 494,598 for Copeland and 443,040 for South Lakeland. A breakdown shows there are 50 people claiming incapacity benefit paid at 99.15 after 12 months for alcohol dependency in Barrow, 40 in Copeland and 30 in South Lakeland. A further 30 people in Barrow cite drugs as the reason they cannot work, along with 20 in each of Copeland and South Lakeland. For Employment and Support Allowance, … Continue reading →

by Jon Collins, Minnesota Public Radio July 31, 2012 St. Paul, Minn. Washington County authorities will offer defendants deals that include less jail time and more emphasis on drug treatment in just under 100 cases affected by the closing of the St. Paul Police Department crime lab. The problems at the crime lab, acknowledged by lab employees in court testimony earlier this month have thrown thousands of past and pending cases into question. The St. Paul Police Department crime lab provided drug testing for the Minnesota State Patrol and law enforcement in Dakota, Washington and Ramsey Counties. Washington County Attorney Pete Orput said about 10 defendants in his county have already accepted plea offers. "We're emphasizing more the chemical dependency aspect, asking people to get a chemical dependency evaluation, follow the recommendations," Orput said. "We're willing to negotiate any jail down significantly less than we had been previous to this incident." Orput said his office is offering favorable pleas to low-level drug offenders in pending cases, but will still focus on the full prosecution of drug dealers. "We don't want to let them not be held to account for what they're doing because we understand how pernicious drugs are in … Continue reading →

In King County, Washington, a portion of all sales tax collected is dedicated to substance abuse, mental health and therapeutic court services. The Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Plan (MIDD), passed by the King County Council in 2007, has helped prevent and reduce the involvement of people with substance use disorders and mental illness in the criminal justice system, says the plans project manager. We are seeing people recovering from substance abuse and mental illness with the help of programs funded by MIDD, says Andrea LaFazia-Geraghty, MSW, MPH, of the King County Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division. She spoke about the passage and implementation of the plan at the recent National Alliance on Mental Illness National Convention. MIDD is funded through a one-tenth of one cent sales tax. Counties in Washington state have had the option to raise the sales tax by 0.1 percent since 2005. More than a dozen counties in the state have implemented the sales tax increase. King County, which includes Seattle, raises an estimated $45 million per year through the tax, LaFazia-Geraghty said. MIDDs programs are designed to stabilize people suffering from mental illness and chemical dependency, diverting them from jails and emergency … Continue reading →