None of it makes sense, said Lupe Quintero, director of Corazon, the only bilingual residential drug treatment center for men in Phoenix. The portion of Arizonans ages 12 to 17 who in 1998 said they have used illicit drugs was nearly 24 percent, far above the national average of 16.4 percent, according to a survey last year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 11.5 percent of Arizona teens reported that they were current marijuana users, compared with 7.8.3 percent in the rest of the country. Although overall teen drug use has dropped in Arizona since 1997, the number of current cocaine users ages 12 to 17 increased to 2.3 percent from 1.9 percent. There are only 12 publicly supported drug rehab beds in Arizona for kids who need to get out of their home environment to get clean or who already live on the streets.
Drug abuse is one of the most common factors leading to a child's entry into the welfare system.
In 1994, caseworkers nationwide reported that they knew of parental substance abuse in at least one-third of families they were serving. Get rid of the demand for drugs by increasing prevention and making treatment easier to get. One-third of that goes to treatment, education and prevention, but the treatment dollars are hard to find in Arizona. Arizona's contribution has remained about the same for the past 10 years, despite a doubling of the state's population. Spending hasn't kept pace with the state's growing problem, said Steve Carter, whose family for decades has run the Maverick House, a treatment and halfway facility in Glendale.