NSW drug treatment underfunded: inquiry TREATMENT for drug and alcohol addicts continues to be underfunded and there aren't enough beds for people needing detox services, a NSW parliamentary inquiry has heard. Professor Alison Ritter, director of the Drug Policy Modelling Program (DPMP), says it's estimated that about 55 per cent of federal and state government expenditure dealing with illicit drugs is spent on law enforcement Spending on treatment is as small as 17 per cent, and only about 23 per cent is spent on prevention. "Governments would have a better and more successful outcome if they invested in treatment, whatever that treatment might be, than if they invested in law enforcement," Prof Ritter told the NSW inquiry into drug and alcohol treatment on Wednesday. The underfunding of treatment is a substantial problem across Australia and not unique to NSW. Prof Ritter said the DPMP, a policy development group, was close to publishing a new Australian drug budget that would provide an updated estimate of investment in treatment relative to law enforcement, prevention and harm reduction. The Network of Alcohol and Drug Agencies (NADA) also gave evidence, saying that withdrawal detox services had greatly diminished in NSW over the years. NADA CEO Larry Pierce said the non-government sector had provided some drug detox facilities purely because there had been a need. "Some of it is funded and some of it is not funded," Mr Pierce said. Traditionally, to access residential rehabilitation a client needed to be detoxed and that was becoming impossible. So they weren't not just getting detox treatment, but they weren't also getting residential treatment - the longer-term life-changing treatment - because they couldn't get through the first door.