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75 CENTS m RALEIGH, N.C. FINAL EDITIONnewsobserver.com
SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2013
DREAM HOMES FOR KIDS
Home & Garden
Garner survives late Middle Creek drive
Sports
U.N. blocked from alleged
chemical attack site
Syria’s refusal to allow an in-
spection leaves the U.S. caught
between global outrage and the
need for conclusive evidence
before responding. 3A
Reservists hurt in bus
wreck in Mooresville
A bus carrying Army reservists
slid down an embankment and
landed on its side Friday after-
noon, injuring 43 soldiers. 1B
A priest’s vast collection
goes up for sale
Monsignor Tim O’Connor accu-
mulated a wide array of religious
art and artifacts, most as gifts
from friends and admirers. He
died in June, and his collection is
being sold. 1B
Judge to decide whether
ultrasound rule is legal
A federal judge heard arguments
Friday about a law requiring
doctors to display and explain
ultrasound images to women
seeking abortions hours before
performing the procedure. 1B
Microsoft’s CEO to step
down within 12 months
Steve Ballmer has spent a de-
cade running the world’s largest
software maker. 4B
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Vol. 2013, No.236
By Will Weissert
and Paul J. Weber
Associated Press
FORT HOOD, Texas A military
jury on Friday convicted Maj. Nidal
Hasan in the deadly 2009 shooting
rampage at Fort Hood, making the
Army psychiatrist eligible for the
death penalty in the shocking as-
sault against American troops by
one of their own on home soil.
There was never any doubt that
Hasan was the gunman. He ac-
knowledged to the jury that he was
the one who pulled the trigger on
fellow soldiers as they prepared to
deploy overseas to Iraq and Afghan-
istan. And he barely defended him-
self during a three-week trial.
The decision on all 13 counts of
premeditated murder made Hasan
eligible for execution in the sen-
tencing phase that begins Monday.
“This is where mem-
bers (of the jury) de-
cide whether you
will live or whether
you will die,” said
Col. Tara Osborn,
the trial judge.
Hasan, who said he
acted to protect Muslim insurgents
abroad from American aggression,
did not react to the verdict, looking
straight at jurors as they announced
their findings. After the hearing, rela-
tivesofthedeadandwoundedfought
back tears. Some smiled and warmly
patted one another’s shoulders as
they left court.
Because Hasan never denied his
actions, the court-martial was al-
ways less about a conviction than it
was about ensuring he received a
death sentence. From the begin-
Fort Hood shooter found guiltyJury must all agree on
execution, or sentence
Hasan to life in prison
Hasan
SEE FORT HOOD, PAGE 12A
Inside
Sentenced: Soldier who massacred
Afghans gets life without parole. 3A
By Annalise Frank
afrank@newsobserver.com
DURHAM Jeff Stillers’ addiction to al-
cohol has landed him in emergency rooms,
clinics and halfway houses; 20 times he’s
gone through about a week of detox at the
state’s expense since he lost his home, wife
and kids 13 years ago to his alcoholism.
Each detox visit costs the state up to
$1,600.
Stillers, 52, is living in a halfway house in
Durham and works for a scaffolding compa-
ny. He’s sober – for now.
“I can go to detox tomorrow afternoon,
I’d bet you,” Stillers said. “I’d go drink to-
night, I get up tomorrow morning and start
drinking, and then go up to a cop or what-
ever and just say, ‘Hey man, look, I need
some help.’ ”
Those who work with addicts say that
the revolving door approach to treatment
is all too common in North Carolina and
doesn’t work.
But for those without the funds to pay for
long-term treatment with housing, coun-
seling, medicine and rehabilitation, the
state’s resources are limited – and
PHOTOS BY COREY LOWENSTEIN - clowenst@newsobserver.com
Working through issues and discussing their views in a drug treatment group session at the PORT Human Services location in Greenville
are, from left, Harold Battle, 58, Austin Eastwood, 26, Robert Brown, 42, and Brittany Pippin, 22.
Too many addicts, too few facilities
Pippin, center, shares her viewpoint during a
group counseling session.
N.C. long-term treatment
programs being squeezed
SEE ADDICTS, PAGE 13A
Coming Sunday
Memories of
MLK’s speech
Fifty years after the
March on Washington, five
local residents recall what
it was like to be there, and
reflect on how things have
changed.
By Lynn Bonner and David Raynor
lbonner@newsobserver.com
draynor@newsobserver.com
The state Department of Health and Human
Services has created new high-salaried posi-
tions in its central office this year and is paying
some top executives more than their predeces-
sors even as the agency’s full-time payroll and
average salary have declined.
The department hired its first chief financial
officer, Rod Davis, in June at a salary of
$169,148. About six weeks earlier, the agency’s
budget director, Jim Slate, received a $30,660
raise, to $144,000.
Joe Cooper, the information technology chief
hired this year to be in charge of the agency’s
computer systems, makes $175,000, about
$20,000 more than Chris Estes, the information
technology chief for the state.
High-level administrators, including the state
Medicaid director and the department’s inter-
nal auditor, make more than the people they re-
placed.
The department is being reorganized to re-
semble a corporate structure, DHHS spokes-
Top salaries rise, new high-pay
positions created at state DHHS
SEE DHHS, PAGE 12A
By Rob Christensen
and David Bracken
rchristensen@newsobserver.com
dbracken@newsobserver.com
Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law a
sweeping regulatory overhaul Friday that
reduces environmental regulations, su-
persedes some city ordinances and puts
all rules currently in place under review.
McCrory hailed the legislation, which
had support in the business community
but was criticized by environmentalists,
as a bill that would boost job creation in
the state by removing “burdensome reg-
ulations and government red tape.”
“For decades, Democrats have stifled
small businesses and job creators with
undue bureaucratic burden and red tape,”
McCrory said in a statement. “We have
more than 22,000 rules on the books in
state government and this is unaccept-
able. This common sense legislation cuts
government red tape, axes overly burden-
some regulations and puts job creation
first here in North Carolina.”
McCrory signs regulatory
overhaul plan, 32 other bills
SEE MCCRORY, PAGE 12A
newsobserver.com
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2. The News & Observer F Saturday, August 24, 2013 13A
+
+FROM PAGE ONE
shrinking further.
The new state budget sliced fund-
ing to three state-run alcohol and
drug abuse treatment centers by
about $4.9 million each year for the
next two years – a 12 percent reduc-
tion per year to each facility’s bud-
get.
The three – Walter B. Jones Alco-
hol and Drug Addiction Treatment
Center in Greenville, Julian F. Keith
Center in Black Mountain and R.J.
Blackley Center in Butner – are the
only centers in the state that offer
long-term treatment to adult ad-
dicts without the financial means to
help themselves. Last year, they
served about 4,300 people – an 11
percent decrease from 2009, ac-
cording to a Department of Health
and Human Services report.
“There’s no question it’s a sub-
stantial hit … These three treat-
ment centers are cut to the bone as
it is,” said Mark Ezzell, the execu-
tive director of Addiction Profes-
sionals of North Carolina.
The treatment centers have seen
their budgets cut in the past but
never by as much.
More emergency room visits
About 7 percent of North Caro-
linians in 2012 reported an addic-
tion to or abuse of alcohol or illicit
drugs, according to the federal Sub-
stance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration. That’s
about 683,000 people.
Over the past 13 years, the state
has transferred treatment to the
private sector. Now there are about
2,500 private facilities in the state
that use donations, and federal and
state money to provide detox, or
medical treatments that remove
drugs from the body over several
days; outpatient treatment; and
counseling.
But there isn’t enough subsidized
care for the uninsured who need to
be admitted on a longer-term basis,
said Amy Blount, the program su-
pervisor for a methadone clinic in
Greenville, part of a chain of private
mental health and addiction treat-
ment facilities called PORT Human
Services.
As funding has declined and the
state treatment centers and private
practices have had to turn people
away, hospitals have seen a rise in
patients entering the emergency
room in need of substance abuse
care, said Becky Frenia, with Caro-
linaEast Medical Center in New
Bern.
As part of her job, Frenia tries to
find addicts treatment when they
come into the ER looking for care.
“It’s when they get out after the sev-
en days, this is critical for them not
going back to drinking again or us-
ing other substances.”
In July, 33 patients came to Caro-
linaEast Medical Center with sub-
stance abuse problems, Frenia said.
She was only able to place 17. She
estimates that about 50 percent of
the time she can’t find a treatment
center bed for walk-in addicts.
The hospital has always had the
problem, she said, but it’s getting
worse. CarolinaEast used to have
someone working only during the
day in the ER on mental health and
substance abuse, but now it needs
someone there 24 hours a day.
The average length of stay in
North Carolina for mental health
and substance abuse patients in
emergency rooms is16 hours, up 68
percent from 2010 to 2012, accord-
ing to the N.C. Hospital Associa-
tion. Until hospital staff can find a
drug treatment center bed, patients
wait in the emergency room, taking
up beds that could be used by other
patients.
“If they’re going through with-
drawal or if they have a real physical
issue, they (can) be treated,” said
Earl Marett, director of the John-
ston County Department of Social
Services and a former area director
of a mental health center. “But they
need a lot more than that. They
need to work through their prob-
lems. And that part is not really
available … anymore.”
Remaining in treatment for the
needed amount of time is critical to
recovery, according to the National
Institute on Drug Abuse. Most
need about three months to fully re-
cover or drastically reduce their
risk of relapsing, NIDA says.
Searching for treatment
Brittany Pippin, 22, goes to the
PORT Human Services Suboxone
Rehab Center in Greenville three
days a week for counseling, com-
panionship and Suboxone, one of
several drugs addicts can take to
wean them off narcotics.
Pippin tried to detox with PORT
before, but relapsed. The last week
of June, she decided to enroll in the
28-day inpatient program at Walter
B. Jones.
But she wasn’t accepted and was
directed to PORT, which offers in-
patient detox care for only seven
days, followed by outpatient coun-
seling.
“It’s really hard for somebody
when they finally get the courage to
go get help, and then you kinda get
denied of it,” she said. It took two
weeks after that to get into PORT’s
program.
Pippin hasn’t used drugs for
around two months. If someone at
PORT doesn’t fare as well as Pippin
in outpatient care, the clinics refer
them to Walter B. Jones, or an often
costly private alternative that offers
inpatient care, said Tom Savidge,
the CEO of PORT Human Services.
The wait list at Walter B. Jones
“fluctuates,” Savidge said. “(Some-
times) the demand is high and …
you have to try to keep them in out-
patient treatment until a spot
comes available.”
Minimizing the blow
Before the final budget passed in
July, state senators sought to close
the state’s treatment centers. They
argued addicts could get adequate
care in their communities from pri-
vate treatment facilities and hospi-
tals.
The governor’s budget proposal
came from the opposite direction.
He did not suggest any cuts to the
centers and has said addiction
treatment is a personal priority.
The House’s budget kept the state
centers open as well but reduced
funding by 5 percent. The 12 per-
cent cut was a compromise be-
tween House and Senate leaders.
“There was consensus in the
House and Senate to ask those facil-
ities to take a much closer look at
their operating expenditures, and
their staff compensation and the
like, and to look and see where they
can economize,” said Rep. Nelson
Dollar, a Cary Republican and the
House’s main budget writer.
The state is still working with ad-
ministrators at the facilities to de-
cide how to make the cuts, said Ju-
lie Henry, a Department of Health
and Human Services spokeswom-
an. The state is also promoting a
new tele-psychiatry initiative to
bring services to emergency rooms
dealing with the mentally ill and
substance abusers in rural area.
DHHS denied requests to speak
to Walter B. Jones administrators.
“I think this in a way is a wake-up
call for the state alcohol and drug ad-
diction treatment centers in the sys-
tem to do a better job of helping the
legislature understand what they do
and the role they play in the system,”
said Phil Mooring, a former director
of Walter B. Jones. “This is a good
timeforthestatesystemtoreallystep
upandbeabletosaybacktothelegis-
lature: ‘You’ve got a hard job trying to
balance the budget, but this isn’t the
place to do it.’ ”
Jeff Stillers, sitting in his halfway
house, has his own ideas about
what’s needed. Stillers has been
luckier than many. He once spent
28 days at Walter B. Jones trying to
kick his habit. He calls that short
term and said it and the weeklong
programs waste taxpayers’ money.
Addicts need a way to deal with
the real world once they’re thrust
back into it, he said. In his experi-
ence, programs that offer housing,
structure and a transition from the
life of an addict to active employ-
ment are most successful, he says.
“I think the reason why I could
never stop and stay stopped is I
would stop and then have no future,
have nowhere to live, back to just
me, the clothes, the streets,” he
said. “Your days are filled with
nothing. So you know how to take
care of that, you stay drunk. You
drink. You be homeless.”
Frank: 919-829-4870
ADDICTS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
COREY LOWENSTEIN - clowenst@newsobserver.com
Brandon Har-
ris, 21, of
Greenville waits
in his mother’s
minivan outside
the PORT Hu-
man Services in
Greenville,
where he has
been going for
three years.
The News & Observer
Funding the care
Federal money under Medicare
and Medicaid pays for a small
percentage of the care.
State dollars
(uninsured patients)
87%
Medicaid,
private,
and other
5%
Medicare
8%
SOURCE:The Division of Mental Health in the
Department of Health and Human Services
The News & Observer
How long they stay
The average length of time a
patient at Walter B. Jones
treatment center stayed in 2012.
SOURCE: North Carolina Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Treatment Centers Annual Statistical Report
1-7 days
11%
8-14 days
30%
15-21 days
16%
22-28
days
22%
29 days
and up
21%
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