WEB ONLY: Buzz Kill

Also in the
Oct. 1, 1970, issue of The New Times (page 13), an article
titled “Rocky Road Show” by Stan Pinkwas chronicled a September 1970
town hall meeting conducted by then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller at the
Randolph House Ballroom in Liverpool.

Pinkwas stated that “The governor opened the meeting with
a brief speech about his drug control achievements: 14,000 being
treated under the civil commitment program... 20,000 under methadone
care... $200 million loan fund... $99,000 for methadone treatment in
Onondaga County... 400 addicts at Argory House... claimed a 45 percent
civil commitment rehabilitation rate.” Reportedly, several chants of
“Liar!” rang out after the governor made that statement.

Describing one of the more impassioned scenes from the
night, Pinkwas went on to report that, “Paul Hartley, a professor at
Syracuse University, accused Rockefeller of neglecting alcoholics and
adult addicts, of neglecting the barbituate and soft drug problem, of
closing job openings to ex-street people and of generally operating
with a ‘honky mentality,’ adding that the greatest danger a drug user
has to face is the law enforcement agencies out to rehabilitate him or
put him away.”

For some contemporary perspective, we called Jeremy
Klemanski, president and CEO of Syracuse Behavioral Healthcare (SBH).
“You’d have a hard time finding too many people in the criminal justice
system that think Rockefeller’s drug laws were and still are
effective,” he said. “There’s a recognition that the Rockefeller drug
laws have been the most ineffective public policy the state has ever
had and it looks like the state is finally moving forward because
they’re more willing to save money.”

Established in 1920, SBH offers extensive drug and
alcohol rehabilitation treatment through inpatient, outpatient and
residential services divisions. As an all-inclusive provider, SBH
welcomes patient referrals made from a number of sources such as
primary care physicians, therapists, social workers and court-mandated
decrees.

SBH has two inpatient facilities, the medically
supervised Evaluation Center, where patients are first admitted so the
effects of narcotic withdrawal can be properly monitored and treated.
From there, they move on to the Willows, a 40-bed dormitory-like
housing facility. In 2008, the Willows treated 636 people: 38.1 percent
for alcohol; 4.4 percent for cocaine; 18.1 percent for crack; 17.3
percent for heroin; 13.4 percent for marijuana; 5.8 percent for “other”
opiates; 1.7 percent for Oxycontin and 1.2 percent for all others.   

Even though they are a non-profit organization, nobody is
denied help based on ability to pay. SBH is able to cover monetary gaps
through a state funding program that allots a designated allowance of
New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services
(OASAS) deficit dollars per year, as well as coverage from Medicaid and
private insurance companies to help pay for their $8 million annual
operating budget. Klemanski notes that Gov. David Paterson is lobbying
for a 10 percent cut to a $775 million budget proposed by OASAS for
treatment facilities like SBH, which would ultimately cut out $667,000
in funding for the Willows--meaning they would not be able treat as
many patients as they’d like.

“So how are we going to treat people with a lot less
money?” continues Klemanski. “It is far cheaper to treat addiction then
it is to incarcerate a person and when we treat an addiction, we
prevent crime, because the part of the brain that lets us decide right
from wrong is affected by substance abuse, which leads people to make
choices they probably would not make if they were sober.” 

The criticism of the Rockefeller Drug Laws was that they
harshly targeted the bumpkins of the drug game such as those possessing
small amounts and small-time dealers. One of the laws decreed that
anyone caught selling more than two ounces of an illegal drug receives
a minimum 15-years-to-life sentence. When these laws began to take
effect in the 1970s, 9 percent of New York’s prison population was
locked up because of drug-related offenses; since then, that rate has
increased 20 percent, while also quadrupling the amount of “criminals”
incarcerated--costing New York state taxpayers hundreds of millions of
dollars per year in the process.

“A lot of folks that went to jail because of a drug
problem still need treatment when they get out,” continues Klemanski.
“We partner with the Syracuse Community Treatment Court run by Kim
Kozlowski and City Court Judge Jeff Merrill and we couldn’t be as
successful as we are without them. We try to make sure people are
getting treatment instead of going to jail.”

Klemanski also mentions that SBH receives contracts from
the New York state Parole Board as well as the Federal Probation Office
in the region, and those partnerships are the catalyst for people
finally starting to logically agree that not everyone that uses drugs
is a criminal. “The longer we can keep them engaged,” he continues,
“the more successful in treating someone will be, which is hard to do
if they are in jail.”

-Tom Kahley