Budget cuts affecting addiction treatment programs

Budget cuts affecting addiction treatment programs
Mar 28, 2012
Bryant Maddrick

RICHLAND, Wash. -- Washington state lawmakers are still in a special session working to balance the budget. Cuts to vital programs will be made.

Recovery Pointe is an addiction treatment center in Richland. Counselors treat people dealing with drug, alcohol, and gambling.

The governor proposed cutting more than $300 million dollars from Social and Human Services which help treatment programs. If that money is slashed, places like Recovery Pointe will be left with fewer options to help people.

"When the reductions hit our program, and initially they wiped out the funding. We didn't have any funding for about 2 months, and then all the funding was restored," explains counselor Jim Mason.

Mason adds, their funding was cut in half leaving them to help only half. Some of those people relapsed back into drugs or gambling.

Unlike drug and alcohol treatment, the facility's gambling program is paid for with taxes collected from the state's gambling commission. But less money collected, means less help.