Taxpayers are spending millions of dollars each year to transport recovering heroin addicts in taxicabs, KIRO Team 7 Investigators reported.

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Video: Cabs Used To Transport Recovering Heroin Addicts

Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne dug into a system that seems to throw away money and common sense.

Each morning at methadone clinics all over the state, lines of taxis bring heroin addicts for treatment. It's door-to-door, tax-funded service that doesn't come cheap.

In fact, we found invoices that surprised even the most ardent supporters of the methadone program. For example, one client spent more than $8,000 of your money just on cab fare in two months.

Washington taxpayers spend $2.8 million each year for transportation of heroin addicts to treatment clinics that's over and above the cost of serving up counseling and doses of methadone.

Cabbie Jerry Bowman is a direct beneficiary of some of that cash. He runs recovering heroin users from Tacoma all over the Puget Sound area.

TRANSPORTATION CHARGES [pdf files] November 2004 October 2004 August 2004 April 2004

"It's real simple. If you're taking someone to Seattle at $1.80 a mile or $2 or $2.20 a mile, that's what it costs," Bowman said. "I enjoy the paycheck from it. I won't kid you about that. Without contracts we'd be hurting a bit, but it could be done more efficiently."

Using the Open Records Act, we pulled line item receipts for methadone delivery cabs. Every month, dozens of addicts rack up staggering taxi bills of more than $1,000.

For example, in April, four clients living in Pierce County spent $7,497.40 on taxi rides to a Seattle methadone clinic -- even though the cabbies drove right past a much closer clinic that exists in Tacoma.

Four months in a row, two addicts from Pacific County headed clear to Lacey in a cab. Your bill for the pair: more than $15,000.

And one receipt shows a single methadone client from Pierce County spent $3,814 for taxi fare in one month.

The examples go on page after page.

Doug Allen oversees our state's methadone program. He admits the taxi rides cost too much, but says taxpayers need to look at big picture overall savings, not individual receipts.

"Those are very expensive figures, but at the same time, when you look at the investment in the future -- the overall investment in methadone treatment and transportation -- we find that it is a good investment," Allen said.

To put the price of heroin taxi transportation in perspective, KIRO Team 7 Investigators analyzed the costs of a mobile methadone clinic in South Seattle.

It treats 170 clients for a total of about $450 per day, less than $3 a person. Former heroine user Tammie Smith rides the bus here for 50 cents, so the entire process can be inexpensive.

"You're saving somebody's life. I think so for $3 a day, it's somebody's life. That's the way I look at it and I thank taxpayers for helping me," Smith said.

State medical transportation officials tell us many recovering addicts do ride public transit, but some of the really expensive taxi rides are for clients in rural areas where there is no bus service.

Other monthly bills (like a $3,800 invoice for a single client) are because some heroin users are scamming the system for a nicer ride.

That makes recovering heroin user Pat Gardner upset, but not surprised.

"Some people take advantage of any program there is out there and some people are very grateful for what they get and they don't abuse the system," Gardner said.

The state says the key to reducing, maybe eliminating, these high cost taxi tides is to open more methadone clinics in outlying areas.

KIRO Team 7 Investigators were prevented from auditing the heroin transportation program in its entirety.

The Department of Social and Health Services, which is responsible for keeping track of costs, does not keep all taxi receipts on file.