$37 million treatment push
Do Utah drug courts tame meth monkey?
For single moms, failure and relapse rates are high; for the state, kids are safe and it's cheaper than jail
By Elizabeth Neff
and Kirsten Stewart
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/21/2007 04:27:16 AM MST

TOOELE - As 28-year-old Tori Curran walks down a narrow hallway in the county courthouse, portraits of smiling Miss Tooele pageant princesses gaze down at her.

She steps into Judge Mike Kouris' courtroom, where the young women inside have led less than picture-perfect lives. Like Curran, many are single mothers who want to raise happy children but who struggle with addiction and relationships.

After working 18 months to beat a methamphetamine addiction and stay clean during her fourth pregnancy, Curran was graduating from a drug court, which gave her treatment rather than prison.

Only time will tell whether the skills Curran has learned will last a lifetime.

Despite efforts to combat it, Utah's meth problem continues to grow - especially for women. For five years, meth has been the top illegal drug of choice for Utahns entering public treatment. For women it surpasses even alcohol, the traditional front-runner, making it the only drug in history to have its female users outnumber males. Nearly half the women in treatment statewide have children.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has proposed investing $2 million in Utah's drug courts and $2.5 million to build two residential clinics in northern and southern Utah to treat 600 women, giving priority to those involved with the child welfare system. But Huntsman will have to convince lawmakers it's a wise investment, no easy task considering the stigma attached to addiction and a dearth of data on treatment, including how patients and drug court graduates fare over the longer term.

Helping Utah's women poses another challenge: transforming a system that wasn't built for them.

"Substance abuse treatment has been historically geared for white, middle-aged male alcoholics," said Salt Lake County substance abuse Director Patrick Fleming. "We're a
hell of a lot better at treating women than 10 years ago, but there's room for improvement."

A review by The Salt Lake Tribune of Salt Lake County data shows men are more likely to complete therapy than women; a difference of 10 percentage points. A second Tribune analysis of drug-court graduation numbers found the lowest success rate in family drug courts, which cater mostly to women with children.

Brent Kelsey, assistant state substance abuse and mental health director, disputes any gender gap in treatment success. He insists treatment works: "It has to. What choice do we have?"
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