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| Justice Dept. Ends Drug-Testing in Jails |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 01/29/2004 |
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The Justice Department is scrapping for now a jailhouse testing program for accused drug offenders that was credited with providing data about heavy drug users and emerging illegal drug trends. Officials at the National Institute of Justice, the Justice Department's research arm, cited budget cutbacks for the demise of the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program that it has run since 1986. The program tests people arrested for drug violations at jails in 35 cities of varying sizes. Data is used to develop national patterns of drug use, trends, markets and treatment needs. The program involves a urine test and a confidential interview with the accused person. Mark Kleiman, a UCLA public policy professor and drug policy expert, said the program differs from most other government measures of drug abuse by focusing on the heavy users - those responsible for more crimes, addiction and other problems - rather than people who use drugs casually. In one example, data enabled researchers to accurately predict that the sharp rise in crack cocaine use in the 1980s would be a one-time spike because younger drug offenders were using the drug in far smaller numbers. National Institute of Justice Director Sarah Hart called the program wonderful but said budgetary constraints made it impossible to continue it along with other programs that measure such things as domestic abuse, corrections issues and management of heavy court caseloads. The spending bill signed last week by President Bush for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 included just $6 million for discretionary Justice Department research programs, down sharply from $20 million the year before. The ADAM program alone cost $8.4 million a year. Hart said the president's next budget request, which will be released next week, will include some money to revive ADAM. She said the agency is working on revisions that could reduce the cost to as low as $6 million a year. |
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