GEN. MCCAFFREY POINTS – CUPERTINO CRC NEWS CONF

SEPT. 12 2005

·                           Pleased to be a part of the CRC Team under Dr. Karlin’s leadership and to be with all the outstanding leaders here today-- Cong. Mike Honda, CA state drug program Director Kathryn Jett, Mayor Patrick Kwok, City Councilors, and many other anti-drug leaders.

·                           Over the past three years, use of any illicit drug in the past 30 days (so-called "current" use) declined 11 percent. Over the past two decades, we have reduced drug abuse in America by an astounding 50 percent. Crime is at thirty-year lows, in part because crack and cocaine use have dropped dramatically.

·                           The private sector has taken giant steps.  CRC Health Group, celebrating a grand opening of its new national headquarters here in Cupertino today, is as Dr. Karlin said the country’s largest substance abuse treatment organization and provides comprehensive residential, outpatient, behavioral, and online addiction services. 

·                           Despite the recent progress, we still face a crisis. Some 19.5 million Americans aged 12 and older abused illicit drugs monthly last year, including one of every six teenagers.  More than two thirds of prisoners are dependent on or abuse alcohol or drugs. The National Association of Counties in July found that 58 per cent of law enforcement officers consider growing abuse of methamphetamine “a national crisis” – over 12 million teens tried it last year.  The "treatment gap," or number of hard-core addicts who need treatment but do not receive any, is 3.9 million; and the gap for all abusers not receiving treatment who need it is perhaps as high as 16 million.

·                           With the Silicon Valley’s national leadership in business and technology, it’s important to note that nearly 75 percent of illegal drug users are employed in full and part-time jobs.  Alcohol and drug abuse costs American businesses over $80 billion dollars in lost productivity in just one year—37 billion due to premature death and 44 billion due to illness.

·                           We cannot and must not hold back.

·                           Truly talented and dedicated national leaders, including Charles Curie, Administrator of SAMHSA (the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), Beverly Watts-Davis, Director of CSAP (Center for Substance Abuse Prevention), Nora Volkow, MD, Director of NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), H. Wesley Clark, Director of CSAP (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment), and Karen Tandy, Head of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) are committed to solve our nation's drug problem. 

·                           To support these outstanding leaders, federal funding must continue for critical anti-drug programs.

·                           As the National Leader in the field of substance abuse treatment, CRC’s announcements today are an enormous step forward:

·                           The success of its online treatment programs, with twice the completion rate of traditional strategies; 

·                           New methods like buprenorphine to confront the raging OxyContin epidemic as well as the return of heroin;

·                           Behavioral intervention to curtail the devastating impact of methamphetamine, perhaps the worst drug to confront America in decades (violence, schizophrenia, suicide, domestic abuse, crime); and

·                           Aggressive use of the Internet to provide help to administrators, providers, and clients.

·                           Dr. Karlin knows he and his team have my full support and assistance for all they are working so hard and so well to accomplish in confronting America’s substance abuse problem.