SM33 Drug Policy Reform Task Force
Approved Meeting Minutes
September 7, 2010
OptumHealth New Mexico
2904 Rodeo Park East, Suite 300A
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Committee Members Present:
Bill Wiese
Judy Arciniaco
Jane Davis
Kristin Jones
Herman Silva
Bruce Trigg
Jana Spalding
Bette Betts
Jim Roeber
Susan Bosarge
Pam Brown
Grace Phillips
Glenn Wieringa
Herman Silva
Kristin Jones
Chris Wendel
Curtis Cherry
UNM/RWJF – Chairing the meeting
OptumHealth
HSC/BHSD (in place of Harrison Kinney)
CYFD
Underage drinking prevention coordinator
DOH/Region 1 and 3
OptumHealth/Health Affairs
ALTSD - Behavior health director
DOH/ERD
HSD/BJSD
NMDC
NM Assoc. of Counties
NMDOT/TSB
NMDPS
CYFD
BH Planning Council
Sierra County Detention
Purposes of the Meeting: Discuss the major directions Task Force is heading; follow up previous
action items; propose additional informational needs for the Task Force; consider specific
recommendations/options for reports of the Task Force.
Meeting was convened at 9:05am by Bill Wiese
Minutes from August 16th, 2010 reviewed and approved with following amendment:
 On page 2 the question mark was inquired about. Herman Silva thinks percentages of repeated
offenders should be there in place of the question mark.
Major Directions and Interim Report:
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Bill Wiese reported speaking with Interim Health and Human Services Committee staff.
Because of health care reform, that Committee will not put any new reports on its agenda for
the rest of the interim session. Scheduling a Task Force report to the Interim Courts,
Corrections and Justice Committee needs to be attempted.
o CONSENSUS: Request extending the TF beyond the date (November) in SM33. Have
by end of October a preliminary report to summarize major directions the Task Force is
headed along with any recommendations for specific legislation for presentation to
interim committees.
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o CONSENSUS: Because of the urgency of needed drug policy reforms, if interim
committees are unable to give hearing to Task Force Reports, then proceed with a
public release of a preliminary report and schedule a time for comments.
Chris Wendel mentioned the Behavioral Health Collaborative is putting together a three-year
comprehensive plan. This Task Force should be part of that.
PLAN: The TF needs to be building on the Collaborative’s work. Bill to follow up.
Follow up from Previous Meeting:
A. BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES
Kinney and Arciniaco
Report/Discussion/Action
 (Harrison Kinney was not present to report on mapping. Jane Davis was not aware of its status
and will follow up with Harrison and communicate also with Judy Arciniaco.)
 Judy Arciniaco will email provider information (not using names but instead classification on
types of programs) to the TF, if possible by the end of week. Needed are services available to
both juvenile and adults, including how people get into services and how systems of care are
developed. TF members suggested incorporating, if possible, all existing detention centers and
their size; eligibility and funding sources, and town and/or county.
 Bill Wiese has access to two graduate students in psychology willing to do a review of efficacy
and effectiveness by intervention method. Bill Wiese asks team force if such information will
be useful. Several TF members expressed interest.
B. PRISON NEEDS and SERVICES
Arciniaco and Silva
Report/Discussion/Action
 Bill clarified that Bernie Lieving offered to summarize aspects of prison alcohol and drug
census, releases, recidivism, programs, planning, costs, and alternative funding strategies and
opportunities, capacity, and barriers, and draft recommendations. Bernie, however, was unable
to attend the present meeting.
 Pam Brown recounted a study a few years ago at Corrections: 87% of incoming prisoners had
a substance abuse problem. Highest-level security is the most difficult prisoner population to
administer treatment to. Only a small portion of prisoners received services.
 Discussion -ideas offered to be considered for interventions in prisons/jails:
Chris Wendel: the role volunteers. (Jane cautioned that volunteers use up resources and
staff time. A model is Springer.)
________ : 12-step programs targeted at higher risk groups (rather than low/medium
risk). (Outcome data, however, are scant.)
Jana Spalding: peer to peer programs.
ACTION: The following TF participants offered to form a peer recovery access work group to
focus these ideas for peer support and other related interventions down to the point specific
recommendation for the TF to consider: Chris, Grace, Jane, Jana, Judy, Pam (as consultant),
and Kristin (regarding issues with juveniles).
 Grace Philips called for uniformity of data collection and reporting. She suggested a committee
work on the formulation of questions for county administers. She will e-mail suggestion and
pull together ideas, and consider a committee.
 (At the end of the meeting) Bill asked with respect to corrections, are there listings and
analyses of best practices? To what can we aspire to such in NM?
o Pam could potentially help gather information.
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o Bruce Trig asserted that what happens in corrections is seldom driven by science. The
process can be political and/or driven by self-interest.
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C. JUVENILE JUSTICE POPULATION
Jones
Report/DiscussionAction
 Kristin Jones handed out selected tables from CYFD FY 2009 Annual Report showing offenses
and charges found delinquent by region and by gender, referencing numbers and percentages of
drug and alcohol offences. She asserted that issues talked about in the adult world need also to
be discussed at the juvenile level. She offered to report on the assessment and intervention
packages available, medication treatment, and other information she feels useful.
NOTE: Bill requested that individuals and committees reporting on specific interventions or general
strategies in NM address each of the following, to the extent knowable, in summary form using the
following format (WEEE): (1) What it is, (2) it’s Effectiveness in this setting and how we know, (3)
whether it is deployed and available Enough in NM, and (4) what Else is needed.
D. MEDICATION ASSISTED TREATMENT
Trigg
Report/Discussion/Action
 Bruce Trigg made the following assertions: MAT, specifically the use of methadone and
Suboxone as long-term replacement therapies, is the most proven intervention for opioid
addiction. There is no public funding from the state, including Medicaid, for MAT. There is
broad demand for these interventions in the community. The cost, even for Suboxone is
marginal. The SAMHSA report (2009) documents the extraordinarily high benefit/cost ratio for
MAT. The recommendations of the HM9 Report (2009) on this subject have been ignored. The
epidemic of opioid addiction is deadly and costly; there is genuine urgency on this issue
 Bruce proposed a committee to formulate specific recommendations for this Task Force.
 ACTION: At Bill’s request, Bruce will draft 1-2 paragraphs summary of recommendations.
Chris Wendel noted the strength of using public comment to build political interest and
supported an earlier suggestion of Bruce’s that the TF have a hearing.
 ACTION: Public hearing in early January to advance on agenda of SM33 and emphasize
neglect of H9, highlighting around 10 user success and failure stories, public comment,
possibly a panel, and doing this together with a local collaborative, if possible. The committee
to make arrangements will be Herman (as convener), Pam, Susan, Judy, and Kristin.
 Jana commented that MAT must go beyond individual prescribing, noting the importance of a
comprehensive approach and involve follow-up, peer support, etc.
 CONSENSUS: The TF will have a strong recommendation in TF reports supporting MAT and
implementation of HM9.
 ACTION: (At the close of the meeting) Bill Wiese asked Bruce to get medical director of MDC
to write a paragraph endorsing MAT in the jail.
 ACTION: (From the close of the meeting) Jane Davis will investigate the process whereby
Medicaid makes its policy decisions.
E. EPIDEMIOLOGICAL DATA WORKGROUPS
Roeber and Shah
Report/Discussion/Action
 Due to time, Jim Roeber deferred his prepared presentation, giving only a synopsis focusing on
alcohol-related deaths and effectiveness of preventions. He started with a short list of effective
evidence based strategies. These have been prioritized by the Governor and managed by a
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cabinet level person. Motor vehicle crashes are one of 54 causes of death due to alcohol but
have been on the decrease; NM’s ranking for DWI deaths, once 1st in the nation, is now at 26.
A number of well-recommended evidence-based alcohol-related prevention strategies have not
yet been as fully implemented or pursued as they could be in New Mexico. What can we do
more here in NM? Having done analysis of existing literature, he will provide a short list of
effective alcohol-related prevention strategies for the TF.
Bruce has a question on how Health Department publicized the evidence based. Is there an
effort to get the world out or is the role of the present TF? He cited the challenge of increasing
taxes.
Noting that alcohol is a central issue in terms of burden and problem of all phases of criminal
behavior, Jim suggested that a general primary prevention approach to reducing excessive
drinking (particularly binge drinking) would likely have an impact on alcohol-related crime.
With focus only on those in corrections, the TF would be dealing with only a fraction of the
population, omitting the many who are in the “pipeline.”
Bill Wiese asked if part of task force’s preliminary report include a section on the pipeline
users – before they have committed the crime.
CONCENSUS: There must be a strong recommendation in TF reports supporting evidence
based primary prevention re initiation and early use of alcohol and other substances and
appropriate intervention for of users.
Betty Betts noted a recent study projecting a doubling of substance abuse above age of 50
because of baby boomers. Data show prevalence to be higher among older adults. Recommends
TF consider the older population. She will review the prevalence data.
ACTION: Jim and Glenn will write up 1 page of evidence-based preventive activities for TF
review.
ACTION: Jim will send a report to the committee. (What report?)
ACTION: Herman said there is a meeting of strategies and will send out the report to TF
members.
ACTION: (At the close of this meeting) Jim indicated he would put together a spreadsheet with
the 25 well-supported evidence-based alcohol-related prevention strategies.
(Nina Shah was not present to provide any update on other substance information.)
F. NATIVE AMERICAN ISSUES
Hatch
(Not discussed.)
G. PRIMARY PREVENTION ALCOHOL
Wieringa
Report/Discussion/Action
 NM leads the nation in number of kids who start to drink before age of 13. (He provided a
handout with 2007 data.) Attention must be paid to restricting access for younger populations.
Two approaches: (1) environmental strategies (2) direct prevention services, not just in
classrooms. Money is very low suggesting an emphasis on environmental strategies, e.g.
increase taxes on alcohol. 80% of drinking occurs at homes. This suggests importance of
strategies targeting social liability of property owners. He strongly recommends tax increase.
He distributed an excerpt from RAND listing evidence-based environment strategies, the “4
P’s” to reduce alcohol availability, his own summary of approaches to reduce demand and
supply, and a description of “Life of an Athlete.”
CONCENSUS: In its reports, TF will recommend increased taxes on alcohol at the state level
and increase primary prevention services.
H. PRIMARY PREVENTION/HARM REDUCTION DRUGS
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Bosarge and Zurlo
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Report/Discussion/Action
Susan Bosarge says focus needs to be on prevention for people who have not started drinking.
She advocates targeting primary prevention strategies using Universal, Indicated, and Selected
categories.
She described a current grant solicitation to fund community programs that use environmental
prevention strategies. Money is from OptumHealth.
ACTION: Susan will send a copy of the proposal to the TF.
 Susan will contact Dominic Zurlo and get a status update on the harm reduction
portion of prevention.
 Susan will give specific evidenced based recommendations to the TF.
I. COSTS
Wiese
(No update)
J. BEST PRACTICES
Roeber
(No update)
K. SUMMIT ON SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND DRUG CONTROL Silva and Meador
L. INTERAGENCY TASK FORCE
Dudley
(No time)
(Unable to attend)
Other:
Judy Arciniaco asked would it be beneficial for this TF to meet with the Collaborative
ACTION: Bill Wiese will schedule a meeting with Linda Roebuck and offer a TF status report and
invite input from the Collaborative. Perhaps the TF can join a Collaborative meeting and perhaps give
some brief presentations.
Judy asked about getting better informed about Legislative proposals likely to address TF issues and
obtaining a listing of all proposals that are currently out there around this issue. She suggested working
through the Legislative Council Service and contacting individual legislators who introduced bills last
year about action in the upcoming session.
ACTION: Bill will contact the LCS.
Adding to TF membership:
 No further update in this section.
Next Meeting:
October 4th, 2010
9:00am-11:00am.
OptumHealth New Mexico
Conference Room B,
2904 Rodeo Park East, Ste 300A, Santa Fe
From 11:00 AM-noon: meeting of the Participatory Intervention Work Group
Meeting Adjourned
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