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ACT FAST ON RECOVERY CENTER

Mac McArthur is about to mail a 55-page document he hopes saves the lives of hundreds of Northern Kentuckians.

The document is an application.  McArthur is director of Transitions Inc., a substance abuse center that is partnering with the Kenton County Fiscal Court to try to persuade the state to build a million-dollar recovery center in Kenton County for drug addicts and alcoholics who are homeless or in danger of becoming so.

The Fletcher Administration plans to build 10 such centers around the state, at least one in each Congressional district.  But the Fourth District is a big district geographically; we think a center needs to be built in the three-county area.

For one thing, Transitions has a proven track record.  For another, the need is immense.

More than 70 persons have been arrested over the last six weeks in the latest crackdown on drug trafficking in Campbell County, and both the Kenton County and Campbell County jails are overflowing with tenants, many of them facing drug charges.  Police, prosecutors and judges see the same people over and over, their lives on a downward spiral that won't be solved by locking them in a cell for a few days or months.

Successful drug treatment would ease the pressures on the jail, not to mention reduce the emergency room visits and social service calls.  But treatment is only successful if it's intensive and long-term.

Northern Kentucky has no facility that compares with what the state wants to build.  Modeled after the HOPE Center in Lexington and the Healing Place in Louisville, the facility would have space for 100 residents in an intensive treatment program that would address all aspects of an addict's route to recovery, from counseling to a career to finances.  Residents would live there from 12 to 24 months, until their lives were firmly reestablished.

Currently only Transitions has a residential treatment program, with spots for about 40 men and 40 women.  But those are typically limited to 90-day stays, and the waiting list is two to four months, McArthur said.  When an addicts decide they are ready to go through detox and take control of their lives, telling them to come back in two to four months usually destroys any resolve they had, he said.  And 90 days often isn't enough time to set the person up for long-term success.

Kenton County officials have agreed to help find a site for the facility, and have one in mind, McArthur said.  Meanwhile, Transitions is about to mail off its application to the state and a separate application for a federal block grant that would be used for operating expenses.  It's also getting construction bids, since the center would be a replica of the ones in Lexington and Louisville.

Transitions should know whether it's successful in mid-June sometime.

McArthur, who attended a meeting in Louisville with others in his field in February to get details of the state's campaign, said he understood about 17 agencies are competing for the 10 centers, including one in Mason County.

We urge the state to pick Kenton County's application for the center and to act fast in releasing the money to build it.  Every day's delay is a lost opportunity to get a handle on a serious problem wrecking our social fabric.