More than 1,000 struggling addicts who have asked for help are falling through the cracks. Meanwhile competent counselors are unable to treat them because of a shortfall in government funding, according to a legislative budget analysis.

That's been the trend since last summer.

The problem was so dire last year that local treatment programs were forced to shed staff. Today, the waiting list in Idaho is 809 people long, including 103 names from the Magic Valley. Poor addicts who asked for government treatment face a waiting list that can last up to a year, local treatment counselors say.

"There is not even close to enough money for everybody," said Sherri Molina, executive and clinical director of Sitman Inc., in Twin Falls. "I have had people drop off the backlog because they have been on it so long."

But Idahoans who used to believe in incarceration are now favoring programs that focus on addiction treatment. As the $2.7 million Idaho Meth Project advertising campaign begins and prisons bulge at great cost to taxpayers, treatment providers are forced to usher addicts into a long waiting list.

The problem, state reports show, is that after 90–days–of waiting for services, a large number of addicts–drop off the list–and regress into addiction.

In light of Idahoans' willingness to step up in early intervention, many addicts who are too poor to afford treatment have seized upon their generosity.

"More people are being treated and more people are asking to be treated and being told that they have to go on a waiting list," said Amy Holly-Priest, director of government contracts and public affairs at Business Psychology Associates, the agency that funnels public treatment funds.

Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley, says the Idaho Legislature now understands the importance of funding prevention. But legislators are unlikely to dramatically change the problem in light of tight budget constraints.

"I'm scrambling around trying to find the dollars for this," the retired physician said. "Hopefully we can come up with enough money to at least sustain our effort from the past couple of years. For every dollar you put in prevention, you save 10 dollars in treatment. All you have to do is take one quick look at that and say, 'where should we be spending our money?'"

The addicts in line shouldn't hold their breath.

With Access to Recovery, the three-year, $21 million federal treatment grant expiring in 2007, it's uncertain how much slack the state will pick up. To keep funding for treatment on par with where it left off in 2007, the annual cost will be about $27 million, according to the Legislative Budget and Policy analyst that reviews the Health and Human Services area.

Federal government guidelines usually give a higher priority for treatment to addicts who are mothers, adolescents, intravenous drug users and drug court defendants. That has left poor male addicts who have yet to commit a serious crime languishing in the long waiting line.

As Idaho coughs up more of its own funding, it will also decide which guidelines to keep for "special needs" addicts.

Government funding is only available for the extremely indigent who have serious dependency issues. Otherwise, the semi-poor can enter the treatment centers on reduced costs. Adult men who qualify, but who have not committed a crime, are given the lowest priority on the list.

In fiscal year 2007, the Office of Drug Policy reports showed that 76 percent of all community-based substance abuse treatment funding was spent on addicts already convicted of a crime.

"I'm optimistic. I believe we are going to get better," Debbie Field, director of the Office of Drug Policy said Thursday. On Monday she explained the need to adjust funding to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. "Right now, they are looking at actual numbers for Idaho. I just gave the information this week to policymakers and I will gladly answer any questions they may have."

Field said 3,331 prisoners say meth was their drug of choice. And with prison space having long run out, the Department of Correction is sending its overflow of inmates out of state at a greater cost to taxpayers.

"It's a funding problem. Not a capacity problem," said Debbie Thomas, outpatient program director for the Walker Center in Twin Falls. Business Psychology Associates, the agency that delegates treatment dollars, "can only spend their dollars at the rate the state gives it to them. There are seats to be filled but there is not the ability for people to pay for them right now."

Cassidy Friedman can be reached at 735-3241 or cfriedman@magicvalley.com