Physically exhausted, drained emotionally and teetering on the edge of financial bankruptcy, I somehow made it out of a New York City crack house in 1989 and into a drug treatment center in Minnesota. After a decade of using and abusing cocaine, alcohol and other drugs, I was in trouble and needed professional help.

Help is what I got. And ever since, I've learned that opportunity comes from adversity. Today I hold a job, pay taxes, raise a family, vote and obey the law.

It is an opportunity that many alcoholics and addicts don't get now. From California and Oregon to Minnesota and New York, state legislatures across the country have slashed treatment dollars as they struggle with gaping budget deficits. Partisan political rancor over vouchers for so-called faith based drug treatment programs deflects federal funds from treatment programs that work.

Our county jails and state prisons are filled with addicts whose only treatment is punishment. Among working families, private health care insurance benefits for addiction treatment are steadily eroding.

Even those fortunate enough to receive treatment are sicker now than my generation of addicts and alcoholics.

Fourteen years ago, about six percent of the patients who were in treatment with me at Hazelden were diagnosed with what is now commonly known as a "co-occurring disorder" -- addiction as well as serious mental issues such as depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders. Today, as many as 65 percent of individuals admitted for addiction treatment also have at least one co-occurring mental health diagnosis. The drugs of abuse in 2003 don't just buzz the body. They can rewire the brain, in some cases permanently. Many patients striving to overcome addiction must also hurdle persistent and debilitating mental issues too. And vice versa. It is a wicked cycle.

Yet today's reality is obscured by our nation's persistent belief that addiction is somehow different than other illnesses, if it is even considered an illness at all. This summer, a blue-ribbon panel established by President Bush to examine how to deal with the burgeoning problem of the mentally ill all but ignored alcoholism and drug addiction in laying out its recommendations. In Congress, legislation introduced by Republican Senator Pete Domenici to improve private health insurance coverage for mental illness specifically excludes addiction treatment. Around the country, only six states provide full and equal insurance coverage for both illnesses.

Meantime, the nation continues to wage a war against addicted people. And the Bush Administration sends mixed messages about its drug policy. The president himself inspired millions of people during his State of the Union speech in January when he declared, "The miracle of recovery is possible, and it could be you." On Fox News a few months ago, drug czar John Walters ably defended the disease model of addiction against a commentator's contention that drug abusers are moral degenerates who should be executed, not treated. The Administration's 2004 budget does include millions of additional dollars for drug treatment programs.

Yet the disproportionate bulk of the Administration's annual $20 billion drug budget still goes where every administration's has for decades -- to fighting a war America cannot win primarily through international interdiction and tough law enforcement at home. And so far, the Administration has remained strangely silent on a key bill introduced in May by two Republicans, Senator Norm Coleman and Representative Jim Ramstad, to improve access to addiction treatment through private health care plans. Most plans don't cover such treatment like they do for hypertension, diabetes or other chronic illnesses. At this point, nothing short of the President's direct endorsement this fall will overcome this discrimination and prod Congress to approve this legislation before the end of the year.

Ironically, the federal government has declared September "National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month." This year's theme is "Join the Voices for Recovery: Celebrating Health." It's a celebration I'll join, because I got a chance to recover. Millions of others won't be there because stigma and a lack of funds for treatment stand between them and President Bush's "miracle of recovery."

William C. Moyers is vice president of external affairs for the Hazelden Foundation, based in Minnesota. His personal experiences were the basis for the 1998 public television series, "Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home."