Rick Kastner, Executive Director of the Lancaster County Drug and Alcohol Commission, knows that funding for addiction treatment is about more than just comfy government budgets: These dollars—and the lack thereof—bear a distinct human impact in Lancaster County. For example, this week Kastner had to decline funding for halfway house services to a county resident who had run out of options.

The man had recently lost his job, could not afford treatment, and did not even qualify for government medical assistance due to his unemployment checks. But Kastner’s office simply could not afford to help him. “Here we are denying somebody who is ready for treatment, ready for recovery, ready for a clean and sober life,” Kastner said, “We simply had to say ‘no.’”

The commission has historically provided financial assistance for those ‘working poor’ individuals trapped in the no-man’s-land of an income too low for health insurance and too high for Medicaid. Before December 2008, the commission would support residential addiction treatment (rehab, halfway house) for about 400 such individuals each year.

Since that time, however, the commission has provided zero assistance for residential treatment—the result of annually shrinking state allocations.

Understand: This is not simply a matter of passing so many hand-outs to area ‘junkies.’ The services promoted by the commission and its partnering providers exist to help conscientious individuals clean up their lives and, in turn, clean up our communities. And, as a result, these services thanklessly draw down expenses that the public would have ultimately paid through prison funding and hospital bills.

“As we see the drug and alcohol funding decrease,” Kastner said, “We see a dramatic increase in the number of inmates in state and county prisons.” He continued, “The hospitals know [this funding is crucial] because they see the ERs and beds being filled with people suffering from…addictive behavior.”

Some of the most tragic victims of inadequate drug and alcohol funding, apart from the addicts themselves, are their families and friends. Kastner articulated the agony of watching a loved one succumb to addiction: “It tears out your heart, because the person is essentially destroying themselves, and you’re just sitting there hopelessly trying to help them and at times can’t find that help.”

However, equally tragic are those victims who will contract HIV/AIDS and other diseases from addicts who might otherwise have been assisted into recovery. These non-addicts will equally pay the price for the underfunding of addiction care. And none of us can be certain that these victims will not be loved ones of our own.

There are doubtless many others like the unemployed man denied support this week. And, sadly, those turned away represent individuals who have painfully mustered what precious little determination they have left to humbly ask for help in turning their lives around. Each of these lives is ‘shovel-ready’ project for social revitalization—just waiting for an adequate investment.

(To learn about the role that the Drug and Alcohol Commission plays in Lancaster’s ‘social safety net,’ read NewsLanc’s 2009 series spotlighting the organization.)