POSITION PAPER- IMPACT DWI, INC.

This paper is prepared in anticipation of the significant additional funding being made available from a dime (or ten cents) per drink alcohol tax increase to fund the prevention and treatment of New Mexico's statewide alcohol abuse problems.

BACKGROUND:
A significant contributing factor to the generations-old alcohol abuse problems, which exist throughout New Mexico, is the lack of treatment programs that range from residential, outpatient, to comprehensive, based on scientific research, and focused toward specific user needs. A truly effective treatment program can help offset other contributing causes to alcohol abuse such as poverty, lack of sufficient education, and poor role models.

Currently, there is not enough of any type of treatment to meet the demand Most existing treatment programs have long waiting lists. This is particularly troubling to local judges, who are trying to address the needs of alcohol abusers who appear in their courts. In spite of the long waiting lists for existing programs, the programs themselves are not very effective in terms of ending alcohol abuse.
A major deficiency of most existing publicly sponsored programs is that they only last for 30 days or less, which is not enough time to address the underlying health and emotional causes of most alcohol abuse. Some of the better programs have some sort of aftercare follow-up procedure.

However, most often there is not enough funding available to meet the demand. Then, there is the fact that "graduates" from these programs are turned back into the same environment, which fed their problems in the first place.
In effect, they are abandoned, often without a job to support them, or sufficient life-skills to obtain anything but the most menial, short-term type of work. In addition, there is little or no follow-up of "graduates", or of people who dropped-out of the programs. All of these deficiencies serve to encourage substance abusers to continue in their destructive routines. Compounding this problem is the tendency of some courts to mandate treatment programs, which are not designed nor intended to address the individual offender's degree of addiction.

Some people do not need treatment, (other sanctions would be more effective), and others have profiles which are not responsive to treatment. It is no wonder then that the failure rate (including drop-outs) of the average, existing treatment program is over 90 percent. This fact serves to create an attendant disappointment, despair and depression, which can be expected when a person's hopes are not realized. In this respect, existing, short-term programs can actually add to the problem. Thus, the "system" fails these people and the rest of the public is left wondering why alcohol abuse continues, seemingly, unabated.

RECOMMENDATIONS BY IMPACT DWI, INC.
(drawn from successful programs used in other states):

I.Recognize that persons arrested for alcohol-related offenses often are subject to different factors, which led to their offense. Roughly, these offenders fall into three groups:

A. Casual drinkers, who often have an "attitude" problem. They know or care little about the affects of consuming alcohol, since they do not see themselves as having any kind of alcohol problem, even when they do drink. Thus, they believe that they can drink and drive without consequence. Often, these are people who have had "one to many" and were caught. It is important to distinguish between people, who, while they may have an "attitude" problem, are not alcoholics or borderline alcoholics. They seldom consume alcohol in quantity, and are not dependent upon it.
However, this group, if not treated with the seriousness, which their offense deserves, can easily develop the idea that alcohol abuse is not a serious offense against society. Judges or prosecutors who allow "plea- bargaining" for first or second offenders, or who find reasons to dismiss the case, are just adding to the offender's perception that alcohol abuse is not a serious matter, which thus contributes to the overall abuse problem.
Therefore, it is essential that sure and quick punishment be administered. This punishment, which should be designed to address the typical first offender with an emphasis upon education, fines, and the installation of an ignition interlock, has been shown to constitute an effective form of "treatment" in itself.

B. Chronic alcoholics (or borderline alcoholics) who are dependent upon alcohol on a daily, or almost daily basis, and who often have an extensive history of abusive behavior.

C. Evolving alcohol abusers, who consume alcohol periodically and often in dangerous amounts -- this group includes youth who "binge" drink.

II. Then screen and assess each person, who is arrested for an offense, where alcohol is a contributing factor, and identify which group they belong in.
This screening would also apply to people who request or who are referred for treatment, but who have not committed an offense. Next, based upon the screening results, place the person into a mode of monitoring, treatment or sanctions, which is designed, to best fit their profile.

III. Based on the above screening and assessment, offenders are then classified into one of the three groups with appropriate sanctions and/or treatment applied:

A. Casual alcohol consumers, whose behavior and attitude could benefit from court ordered sanctions such as a night or two in jail, fines, ignition interlock, and education-based action, such as the Victim Impact Panel. Compliance monitors, who would report exceptions to the court of jurisdiction for follow-up, would monitor their future performance. Treatment is not recommended for this group, unless future behavior, as determined by the compliance monitors, indicates it.

B. Chronic Alcoholics. These, by definition and, often, their own history, are people who pose a definite danger to society. It is recommended that people who are classified into this group not be given rehabilitative treatment (see below).
Experience has shown that people who fit into the Chronic Alcoholic group do not respond effectively to conventional, rehabilitative treatment programs, and probably have already attended a least one such program in the past.
These people are hard-core alcoholics, whose desperate dependence upon a daily dose of alcohol, often because of advanced underlying emotional and/or physiological problems renders them unreceptive to treatment programs. Because of the danger and the cost, which these repeat offenders pose to society, they should be, once arrested, and if found guilty, sanctioned under both existing civil "public nuisance" law, as well as relevant criminal law. This type of repeat offender's ability to cause further harm to society must be recognized, and be curtailed by the use of appropriate options available to the courts in New Mexico.
These options include: electronic monitoring (ankle bracelet), ignition interlock on all vehicles, which that person has access to, as well as possible confinement in prison or a mental institution for those whose history demonstrates that they are incorrigible. There should be no "second chance" given to this classification of people, because society's protection must take preference.

C. Evolving Alcohol Abusers. This group represents a numerically large percentage of the total of people arrested for alcohol abuse-related offenses (second only to first and second offenders). Thus, the potential to reduce the alcohol abuse problem, in a substantial manner, lies with this group, if the proper treatment is applied. The emphasis with this group, in regard to treatment, should be on limiting their ability to cause further damage to society, by applying effective treatment and follow-up as explained below.
Like the people who are Chronic Alcoholics, these people usually consume alcohol because of underlying medical, emotional and/or physiological problems. What differentiates people in this group from Chronic Alcoholics is often their age, their attitude toward changing their behavior, and the number of years since they began consuming alcohol. Because of their younger age and other factors, which can be identified during the screening process, the success factor in effectively treating underlying medical, emotional, physiological, educational, job skill and other limiting factors has been shown to be worth the cost and effort, if it is done properly and in a scientific manner… For this group it is recommended that a new treatment program be created. The program's procedure and scope would draw from effective treatment programs now in use in other states. This program would contain the following basic elements:

1. The program would be residential.
This element has been shown to be essential to the process of assisting people, who have alcohol abuse problems. A major cause for the failure of non-residential programs to produce substantial positive results is the fact that change is all but impossible, when a person is not removed from the environment, which either caused their problem or enables it.

2. Necessary medical treatment to obtain complete mental, emotional and physical health on an individual basis, if possible.

3. Formal, basic, educational, work-related and other life skills, relative to each individual's ability.

4. Upon "graduation" from this program, reasonable financial and mentoring assistance to help ensure each "graduate's" successful re-entry into the community.

5. Ongoing, periodic monitoring to determine if additional assistance is required, and to assess the program's effectiveness and possible need for modification.

SUMMARY:
People who have been subject to a combination of negative and often traumatic experiences in life have no reason for hope, or the desire to develop, or acquire the education or other life-skills required to live productive and satisfying lives. These are people who live from day-to-day and often from moment-to-moment.
Thus, particularly if they also possess medical or emotional problems, they often make poor choices, which, in turn, negatively impacts society. The effective addressing of the varying causal factors through new and effective residential treatment programs, while increasing the emphasis upon protecting society from the abuses of the chronic alcoholic, must be adopted to break that cycle. Until this occurs on a statewide basis, there can be no logical reason to expect different behavior from alcohol abusers, or a substantial change in the state's alcohol abuse problem.

However, these new programs will take millions of dollars to set-up and to operate. It is Impact DWI's position that this money should not come from the public at large in the form of income or gross receipt taxes. The only reasonable source of the required money is from the consumers of alcohol. It only seems fair that those who consume alcohol pay-forward, as they purchase their alcohol and, thus, fund the cost of dealing with alcohol abuse.