Free Republic

As the nation’s opioid epidemic rages on, the federal agency charged with leading the government’s response to substance abuse is changing the way it helps local communities. But critics say the move risks leaving programs with fewer resources until the new plan is in place. The controversy began in January with a low-key announcement by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Rather than continue hiring contractors to pair experts with communities, as has been done for years, SAMHSA’s new approach will “utilize local expertise” to provide technical assistance and training. This effort will “focus on the specific needs...

New SAMHSA report shows that 24.6 million Americans aged 12 or older were current (past month) illicit drug users – 9.4 percent of this age group. Marijuana was by far the most commonly used illicit drug with approximately 19.8 million current users aged 12 and older. In terms of other illicit drugs, the report indicates that among those aged 12 and older, there were 4.5 million current nonmedical users of prescription pain relievers (1.7 percent), 1.5 million current cocaine users (0.6 percent), 595,000 methamphetamine users (0.2 percent), and 289,000 current heroin users (0.1 percent). Although an estimated 22.7 million persons...

A federal agency tasked with mental-health treatment makes the system worse.‘My son was only able to get treatment by killing his mother.” This was the testimony of Joe Bruce at congressional hearings on May 22. In 2006, Will Bruce, then 24 and suffering from schizophrenia, killed his mother, Amy, with a hatchet. “But an unbearable aspect of Amy’s death,” Bruce told members, “is that my own tax dollars helped make it possible.” Bruce was referring to the federally funded Disability Rights Center of Maine, whose employees coached Will on how to get out of the psychiatric hospital and avoid being...

Bureaucratic InsanityFrom the June 20, 2011, issue of NR. Some federal-budget cutters claim that we have already picked all the low-hanging fruit. Those of us who work in Washington know better, although it is not considered polite to say so. One counterexample is SAMHSA, a federal health agency distinguished by the fact that the health of its clients would improve if it went out of business. The acronym stands for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a $3.6 billion component of the Department of Health and Human Services. It employs 537 people, who have an average salary of...

CHICAGO (Reuters) – More than 45 million Americans, or 20 percent of U.S. adults, had some form of mental illness last year, and 11 million had a serious illness, U.S. government researchers reported on Thursday. Young adults aged 18 to 25 had the highest level of mental illness at 30 percent, while those aged 50 and older had the lowest, with 13.7 percent, said the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration or SAMHSA. The rate, slightly higher than last year's 19.5 percent figure, reflected increasing depression, especially among the unemployed, SAMHSA, part of the National Institutes...

NANNY STATE: GOVERNMENT WEBSITE TO WARN OF SADNESS/CRYING OVER ECONOMY Drudge developing story.