Recognizing the importance of substance abuse treatment, the state has funded the expansion of Drug Courts to 115 of Kentucky's 120 counties and has increased the number of treatment beds in jails.

But more needs to be done.

That was the message at a Thursday seminar that brought together 60 people, ranging from social workers to volunteers, to learn how to push for more recovery programs and legal changes that could affect how substance abusers are punished.

At least 70 percent of the state's roughly 21,000 inmates are in prison "because of drugs directly or because of a crime committed for drugs," said Michael Brown, secretary of Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.

The legislature and Brown's cabinet are reviewing drug laws, especially those related to second offenses and trafficking, to see if there is a better way to help people who break the law primarily to support their addiction.

The majority of inmates jailed on trafficking charges are not the drug dealers of the movies, with stacks of cocaine and suitcases filled with cash. Most are small-time dealers supporting their own habit, Brown said. Punishing them in the same way doesn't make sense, he said. But if the definition of trafficking is tinkered with, it can look like the state is going soft on crime.

"We are a punitive state," said Supreme Court Justice Mary Noble, a former Fayette County judge who was instrumental in starting Drug Court, which offers non-violent drug offenders an alternative to jail.

Kentuckians like people to be put in jail and kept in jail, she said. But, especially as the state's pain pill problem has spread, more and more families are affected by addiction and have a different opinion about that kind of "lock 'em up" philosophy, she said.

Time has shown that simply punishing a substance abuser, without treatment, does nothing to solve the problem long term.

For example, some 20 percent of graduates of Drug Court commit a felony within two years after completing the program, said Connie Neal, manager with the Administrative Office of the Courts. Roughly 57 percent of those on regular parole — Drug Court offers a more intense supervision — reoffend in the same time frame, she said.

That success rate, borne out by studies from the University of Kentucky Center of Drug and Alcohol Research, is the reason Drug Court has spread in the past few years to 115 of Kentucky's 120 counties, she said.

The growth of Drug Court isn't the only sign that things are changing for the better, said Kevin Pangburn, director of the division of mental health and substance abuse in the Kentucky Department of Corrections.

At least 85 percent of Kentucky's 21,000 inmates are imprisoned because of problems with substance abuse, he said. In 2004 there were only 475 beds available for treatment, he added.

"That was embarrassing," he said.

Now some 2,000 treatment beds available. The growth is a trend that he hopes will continue.

It can be hard to get the public behind addiction treatment, Pangburn said. Addicts, in the early stages of recovery, are annoying, don't think clearly and are wildly self-centered. But, he said, improving addicts' lives also improves the lives of their families.

If inmates can stay clean after prison, they can become productive members of society, get jobs, pay taxes and take care of their financial responsibilities such as child support or restitution.

The stigma still lingers that beating addiction is a matter of choosing right over wrong, said organizer Mike Barry, chief executive officer of People Advocating Recovery, a Louisville-based aimed at improving addiction treatment, prevention and recovery services.

The lesson needs to be hammered home to the public and legislators that addiction "is a brain disease," he said. "It is a health problem."

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