Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jan 2016
Source: Buffalo News (NY)
Copyright: 2016 The Buffalo News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/GXIzebQL
Website: http://www.buffalonews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/61
Author: Terrence Dopp, Bloomberg News

BUSH SEES DRUG FIGHT AS NATIONAL CALLING

HOOKSETT, N.H. - Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush called 
drug addiction one of America's "soft underbellies" and said the 
fight against it should be a "national calling."

His speech at a New Hampshire forum came on the same day he published 
an online essay detailing his daughter's struggle with 
prescription-medicine abuse.

Bush, a former Florida governor, favors expanding so-called drug 
courts rather than sentencing first offenders to jail. He said his 
daughter Noelle's graduation from one such programs was as much a 
milestone in her life as her community college commencement.

"It creates huge demands on government; it creates a lack of 
productivity and it creates huge hardships for families across the 
board," Bush told about 200 people Tuesday at the Addiction Policy 
Forum at Southern New Hampshire University in Hooksett.

Drug policy has taken on new prevalence in the race as New Hampshire, 
which will hold the first primary in the U.S. on Feb. 9, has been in 
the grips of a heroin crisis that has made headlines.

Republican hopefuls Chris Christie, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina and 
Mike Huckabee also addressed the forum, spelling out proposals for an 
issue not usually associated with the party. The focus was largely on 
treating addicts and overhauling the criminal justice system, while 
strengthening laws against drug dealing and importation.

"I never expected to see my precious daughter in jail," Bush wrote 
Tuesday in an essay posted on the website Medium. "It wasn't easy, 
and it became very public when I was Governor of Florida, making 
things even more difficult for Noelle. She went through hell, so did 
her mom, and so did I."

Christie, who as New Jersey's current governor expanded drug courts 
and lifted jail sentences in many cases, said he opposed marijuana 
legalization in states such as Colorado and Washington. He said 
President Obama had been soft on drugs thanks to his own admitted 
marijuana use in the past.

"Go to Congress, stand in the well of the House in your State of the 
Union Address and say 'I believe it's time to legalize marijuana,'" 
Christie told the crowd in a speech interrupted often by loud 
applause. "This child of the '60s who is in the White House is unable 
to absent himself from his own past use, and is unable to say no."

Kasich said he too favored treatment over incarceration and said he 
wants schools to be involved in the anti-drug fight. He said his 
state has cut substance-abuse rates and recidivism through both efforts.

Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett Packard, told the 
crowd of the death of her stepdaughter Lori Ann at 34 from an 
overdose. Along with drug courts, Fiorina also called for sending 
more resources to community-based programs and cracking down on 
doctors who "overprescribe pills."

"What broke my heart most of all was to watch the look in her 
once-bright eyes change," she told the crowd. "The sparkle, the 
potential, the possibilities that once filled her eyes were gone."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom