Louisiana Main
Resources in
Louisiana
|
Louisiana-New Orleans
|
 The people
of New Orleans, clearly "got it" pre-Katrina.
Consider how our failure to address addiction, to prevent, treat,
and support recovery has impacted the largest urban area pre-storms
of 2005
-
One in five (21%) households in
New
Orleans do not have a car. (9% U.S.)
- In
Louisiana, 74% of poor children have parents with a high school
degree or less.
- 8% of households in
New
Orleans have no phone service. (4%
U.S.)
- Over half (53%) of
New
Orleans residents are renters (33%
U.S.),
and 41% (36% U.S.) of renting families spend more than 35% of
their income on rent.
-
In
Louisiana,
44% of black children live in poor families, while 9% of white
children live in poor families.
-
In
Louisiana,
19% of poor children are uninsured.
-
The Bureau of Justice
Statistics has shown that Louisiana has the highest rate of
imprisonment in the United States. (814 per 100,000).
Day to day living in a city plagued with consequences of a failed
response to addiction. Alcohol and other drug related problems
were well understood by the people of the city, as prior to the
storms of 2005 the city was the largest urban area within the state
of Louisiana. Indifference to the harms of alcohol/other drug
(aod) problems in New Orleans and the surrounding area have been the
general response, lost it seems in red tape, and confusion as to how
to address this issue with real impact for those in need.
This complex
challenge, decades old, left many people with the belief that there
was little hope in creating a real and effective solution.
What was once a serious
public health problem transformed into a serious public safety
problem, now is the time to reflect and move towards a whole new
approach to alcohol and other drug problems in New Orleans and
across our state. The government efforts may play a role, but
we need to look beyond that today.
The NCADD chapter in New Orleans (CADA) does a
public opinion survey each year needless to say the revelation is
clear this city and her people needed help like the rest of
Louisiana long before the storms of 2005. The real problems
related to addiction need a total overhauled response centered on
recovery as a priority response, many of us continue to advocate for
just this change as we did before the storm. It must be said
that knowing that addiction has long plagued the city, it is
startling to me to see the response continue toward a totally failed
system.
If criminalizing addicts and alcoholics worked, our jails and
prisons would not continue to grow to meet the annual increase in
persons incarcerated in Louisiana.
Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans area residents say alcohol and drug
addiction is the city's chief health problem
HN
Report on Alcohol and Drug
Crisis in New Orleans 2003 |
|
New Orleans, Louisiana, Violence, Crime, Illicit
Drugs, Alcohol, all been discussed for sometime now. There is
no disputing that our failure to effect prevention, treatment and
recovery support has lead us to a rampant cycle of addiction in our
state that uses our prison/criminal justice system as a turnstile in
too many lives.
Collection of Articles leading up to the Storms of
2005 related to:
OPP has one of the largest populations of any jail in the country,
averaging 6,846 inmates at any one time. New Orleans is the
thirty-fifth most populated city in America but has the eighth
largest penal institution in terms of the total number of prisoners
per day, giving it the honor of having the highest incarceration
rate of any large city, with 1,480 prisoners per 100,000 residents.
This is double the United States' incarceration rate, already the
highest of any country. OPP is also the largest correctional
institution in Louisiana, housing about 1,700 more people than the
notorious Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2006/0306gerharzhong.html
The Gambit:
Officially, the
Sheriffs' Association has sent Blanco a letter asking her to keep
Stalder in his job. Unofficially, says one observer, the state's 65
sheriffs -- who keep nearly half of the state's prisoners in their
jails -- have been lobbying the new governor so hard that the word
"aggressive" would be an understatement.
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2004-01-27/news_feat.html
Times Picayune:
2002 story clearly connecting violence to addiction in New
Orleans...
"Use tied to murders
Research suggests that since the mid-1990s, the number of local
heroin users in New Orleans has doubled. What's more, murders in New
Orleans that police think were motivated by illegal drugs, most
notably crack cocaine and heroin, grew from 19 percent in 1998 to 37
percent in 2001" read all of this article
Smak's Back
2004 Special Report by TP:
Web of Addiction
"It's the street's harshest designation. No matter that crack has
lured well-educated professionals and once comfortable housewives
into addiction. To be a crackhead is to be the street's ultimate
loser, addicted to a cheap, nasty narcotic that denies users even
the spasm of giddy glamour available from a snort of powdered
cocaine, or the wistful moment of melancholy that distracts the
heroin addict from his or her daily ordeal. Crack use is, from start
to finish, an act of desperation."
|
Read Patrick Moore's
Yahoo Articles reveal awareness of our truths across the
country:
"Disasters have a way of making hidden problems visible and, in the
case of Hurricane Katrina, the effects of disproportionate addiction
and alcoholism rates in poor, minority communities were dramatically
revealed."
Read the entire article and keen insight to our need for progress
here:
addiction rebuild and related issues in Louisiana
Criminal Behavior,
Violence, all preventable when related to addiction:
Louisiana Department of Corrections does not provide treatment to
all alcohol and drug offenders estimates in 2002 show
20% of those
under their custody to be from Orleans Parish. Living
addicted, to alcohol and drugs, undereducated, in poor communities,
is not a hopeful evolution for many people.Empowering people with
recovery, vocational training/education, job placement, ongoing
support for healthcare, parenting education and support, all can
make huge difference for those driven to gain and sustain a life
free from alcohol/other drug use, abuse, and addiction. |
About 600
residents in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and
Plaquemines parishes were interviewed in February and March for the
survey, the fourth annual study released by the Council on Alcohol
and Drug Abuse for
Greater New Orleans and the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission.
The results were presented during a Tuesday meeting of the
Association of
Substance Abuse Programs and Professionals, an umbrella organization
that
includes the council, a United Way agency.
According to the survey, presented by council President John
King, 78
percent of those polled say alcohol and drug addiction is the area's
main health
problem, almost mirroring the percentage of residents who thought
the
addictions are the nation's leading health problem.
King said certain "cultural traditions" and businesses in
Louisiana, such
as Mardi Gras and drive-through daiquiri shops, contribute to the
problem,
especially with underage drinkers. Underage drinking topped public
intoxication, public nudity and litter as the top Carnival-related
concern
of surveyed residents.
"It's a culture that not only accepts drinking, but almost
encourages it,"
King said.
He said 15- to 20-year olds represent 9 percent of drivers in the
state,
yet they are involved in 16 percent of fatal, alcohol-related car
accidents.
"This is a devastating trend," King said.
Survey respondents from St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes had
the most
family members cited for drunken driving in the past year, the
survey
showed.
Law enforcement officials in both parishes said they were
hesitant to
comment on the report because they were not familiar with how the
survey was
conducted and had not researched their own statistics
Overwhelmingly, residents supported an alcohol tax that would be
designated solely for treatment and prevention services.
Seventy-seven percent
favored the measure, and 83 percent of residents surveyed who had
been charged with
drunken driving also supported it.
"This is not something that is lightly supported by the public,"
King
said, adding that the Legislature is scheduled to consider a similar
bill this
year.
The survey also found that the public was critical of the state's
decision
last year to delay lowering the legal blood alcohol limit for
driving from .10
to .08 until September 2003.
That will allow the state to just make the federal deadline of
October
2003 to change the limit or risk losing millions in federal highway
money.
Nearly 60 percent of residents said the limit should have been
lowered
immediately, and that the decision reflected the influence of the
alcohol
industry.
"The question is how many people will lose their lives between
now and
then," King said about the deadline.
The delay has cost the state about $12 million to $14 million in
incentive
money from the federal government that would have gone toward DWI
prevention programs, said Phil Jones, a spokesman for the highway
safety commission.
"We were very disappointed because it would have meant a
tremendous saving
of lives," he said.
Several substance abuse workers who attended the meeting said
they were
most frustrated that, in light of such disturbing statistics,
financing for
services to combat drug and alcohol addiction remained low on city,
parish and
state levels.
"If it wasn't for the federal government, we wouldn't have
anything," said
Veronica
Umrani, a coordinator with the Tulane-Xavier Welfare to Work
program.
Officials estimate that Louisiana serves only 8 percent of
residents with
addictions, well short of the national average of 21 percent.
. . . . . .
New Orleans Government
|
|
Please go to our online
forums...here find your parish
|
|
