Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Programs (BDAP) will now be represented by a cabinet level secretary – which is a promotion of sorts, it means that a bureau becomes a department, or something like that. Anyways, some politician with a heroin addict son fought for this for 6 six years, so it’s a big deal to someone somewhere. Here’s the fun part:
he hopes the change from bureau to department will mean more money for drug and alcohol addiction treatment, a service being funded this year with about $200 million.
So, this agency currently spends $200 MILLION a year trying to prevent or stop addiction in the state of Pennsylvania, and they’re hoping that with this change, they’ll get more money. First off, I’m gonna say that they’re automatically wasting money if they’re spending it on programs which are based on and spread the disease theory lie. Lies just don’t have good long term results in reality, and a lie backed by $200,000,000 is no different. But let’s just see what this bureau, BDAP, has to say for itself.
I found BDAP’s annual report online. It’s so full of nonsense that I can touch, smell, and feel the scads of useless high paid bureaucrats while reading it – it’s kind of like watching Avatar, it transports you to another world, but this world isn’t vibrant & exciting, it’s just plain depressing and sucky. These are BDAPS own statistics on changes in substance use between 2008 & 2009. Remember, this is in PA, where the state government alone spends $200,000,000 a year on prevention and treatment:
The number of children (12-18yrs) who:
- didn’t use alcohol in the last 30 days – increased by 1.41%
- say they have never used alcohol – increased by 1.5%
- haven’t driven while intoxicated in the past year – went down by 3/10 of a percentage point (not good, but not significant either).
- say they’d be more likely to work for an employer who randomly drug and alcohol tests his employees -increased by 1.1%
- have never used marijuana – increased by 1.18%
- have never used other illegal drugs – increased by 2/10 of a percentage point
- say they first used alcohol between the ages of 12-14 – decreased by almost a whole percentage point! (.87%)
- believe that people are at great risk of harming themselves physically and in other ways when they have five or more alcoholic beverages once or twice a week – increased by 2/10 of a percent.
- strongly disapprove of someone their age trying marijuana or hashish once or twice – increased by 2.69%
Have I made my point? I’m not a statistics expert, but these numbers are amazingly unimpressive, and I think, all within standard margins of error. I think that if the kid with the “cool parents” moves out of town then the number of teens who haven’t drank in the past 30 days probably goes up by 40 or 50 percent. Who cares about a 1.41% change? Is it worth $200 Million? Is it worth $20 Mil? Is it worth $2,000,000 a year when the changes are so insignificant and may have nothing to do with your efforts?
