TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush choked back a sob Tuesday when he thanked a crowd of about 400 people for their support following the January arrest of his daughter, Noelle, on prescription fraud charges. The occasion was the state's fourth annual drug summit. "I want to thank you on behalf of my wife for your prayers and for your quiet counseling in the last few months about our daughter, Noelle," Bush said. Bush stopped briefly, bringing his hand to his face, as tears welled in his eyes. [continues 276 words]
If so, then both President Bush and Gov. Bush and their families need to start packing, since their children have been arrested and charged with illegal drug or alcohol use. Or does this ruling affect only poor people? ROGER SEGUIN West Palm Beach [end]
Here's another way that rich is better: If you're poor, and a family member does drugs, you can be kicked out of your home. It doesn't matter, as the government's lawyer said, whether the kid lights a joint 3,000 miles away. If the family lives in public housing, it's "one strike and you're out." Last week, the Supreme Court upheld the 1996 law in an 8-0 vote against three elderly grandmothers in Oakland, Calif. One was evicted because the retarded granddaughter she cares for was caught with marijuana three blocks from the project. The law affects only poor people in public housing, including 1.7 million families headed by people over age 61 who can be punished for a drug crime committed by any member of the family. [continues 309 words]
PORT ST. LUCIE -- Tina Smith had been taking painkillers prescribed by Dr. Asuncion Luyao of Port St. Lucie for a back injury for about five months when her mother, Connie Velie of Vero Beach, started to worry. The once vivacious, bouncy 27-year-old had become sluggish and dull, slurring her words and sleeping too much. Then, in May, she missed Mother's Day. Smith, a mother of two who worked delivering pizzas, had always made Mother's Day a big production. She once gave Velie four dresses. [continues 1382 words]
Anyone who has seen Reefer Madness might have wondered Monday whether some Supreme Court justices were recreating scenes. The over-the-top 1936 anti-drug film recommended that anyone using marijuana be considered mentally ill. The issue before the court this week was whether a school district near Oklahoma City could maintain a policy of mandatory random drug tests for any high school student taking part in interscholastic competition, from the football team to the choir, even if there was no suspicion of drug use. [continues 337 words]
Should the United States give Alvaro Uribe money? Should the United States give Alvaro Uribe weapons? Mr. Uribe's name draws blank looks now, but it probably won't after May 26. That's when voters in Colombia are expected to make him their country's next president. Mr. Uribe's policies and plans therefore are of vital interest as President Bush asks Congress for more money and military leeway to help Colombia fight . . . whoever it is Colombia is fighting. Mr. Uribe is the Harvard-educated son of a rancher. He has been mayor of Medellin, home of the infamous drug cartel, and head of Colombia's civil aviation authority. Much more than the current president, Andres Pastrana, Mr. Uribe is a law-and-order candidate. His outlook is born of personal tragedy. Guerrillas assassinated his father in 1983. So if the United States gives Colombia more aid and more leeway, Mr. Uribe is likely to use it enthusiastically against . . . whoever Colombia is fighting. [continues 269 words]
PORT ST. LUCIE -- An undercover St. Lucie County Sheriff's deputy in his mid-20s attended two Port St. Lucie high schools for the past six months, struggling through algebra, going to parties and gathering information that led to the arrest of 16 students Wednesday, most on drug charges. Sheriff Ken Mascara said the undercover case, named Operation Safe Kid, was the first of its kind in St. Lucie County and will expand to other district schools. He initiated the program last summer after hearing parents complain that kids at local schools "were doing everything but learning." [continues 689 words]
The Bush administration's emphasis on increased financing for treatment as a national strategy in dealing with drug and alcohol abuse ("Bush sets goals for reducing drug use," Feb. 13) is encouraging, yet it ignores a major obstacle to success: the failure of health insurance to cover adequately the cost of treatment. Too often and often too late, people in need of alcohol or drug treatment discover that their insurance plans won't pay for it. As a result, people don't get what they need to help them overcome their addiction. [continues 98 words]
Sheriff Ed Bieluch's claims that his expensive "go-fast" boat has $38 million in drug busts to its credit does not appear to be supported by drug seizure reports. The oceangoing boat apparently was not crucial to the seizures, which occurred in shallow waters of the Intracoastal Waterway, according to the reports. Bieluch's purchase of the high-speed undercover boat last June for $158,000 raised the eyebrows of some Palm Beach County commissioners who questioned why it was needed. [continues 634 words]
I read with interest The Post's Feb. 8 front-page article "The Xanax Zone," which details the abuse of Xanax in combination with other drugs and alcohol by young people. I am concerned that benzodiazepines, such as Xanax, Valium and others, commonly are prescribed to adult and elderly people who continue to consume alcohol as part of their lifestyle and are unaware of the dangers of this potentially lethal combination. Though the article does note that "mixing alcohol with Xanax can be deadly" and that a single Xanax in combination with alcohol has been documented to kill, I have encountered many consumers in my home health practice who assume that such consequences only occur with "abuse" and not when "taken as prescribed." [continues 182 words]
As The Post reported in last Tuesday's editorial "Drug-treatment cuts leave state vulnerable," financing for residential and outpatient drug-treatment programs was cut severely during a special session of the Legislature last year. Lawmakers weighed heavily the decision to reduce money for these programs against the core functions of the Department of Corrections such as security and public safety. Gov. Bush's executive budget, released in early January, outlined a $7.3 million restoration of substance-abuse treatment financing. His recent supplemental budget included an additional $3.1 million to restore fully the residential and outpatient substance-abuse treatment programs. [continues 112 words]
Since 1995, Noelle Bush, daughter of the governor, has received seven speeding tickets, been cited for five other traffic violations and been involved in three accidents, according to state motor-vehicle records. Ms. Bush has taken part in drug treatment and rehabilitation programs in the past few years, both in Florida and out of state, sources close to the governor, quoted in recent Post articles, have said. Gov. Bush revealed during his 1998 campaign that one of his three children had a short-term drug problem. That experience led his wife, Columba, to become involved with Informed Families, a statewide drug-education program based in Miami. If you or I were to do what their daughter Noelle has done, we would be punished severely, and so should she. FRED BAILEY Okeechobee [end]
Was it really necessary for Brian Crowley to highlight Gov. Bush's daughter's arrest in Sunday's front-page article "Favorites end a week they'd like to forget"? Is Mr. Crowley suggesting that voters should not be concerned about Democratic front-runner Janet Reno's health -- or the health of any potential officeholder -- and the effect her health may have on her ability to serve as governor? I thought there was an understanding in political circles and among political writers that family matters, especially those involving politicians' children, were somehow exempt from scrutiny -- in the interest of good taste. Ah, yes. Good taste. BARBARA A. KREISMAN, Atlantis [end]
Noelle Bush's problems with drug abuse and the law may focus attention on Florida's failure to provide adequate drug treatment for families who don't have the Bushes' resources. Late last month, the Florida Department of Corrections approved a $13 million cut that will eliminate many drug-treatment programs for inmates and for people getting treatment in community programs. The cuts are severe. The Comprehensive Alcoholism Rehabilitation Program has operated 45 inpatient treatment beds for the state in Palm Beach County and 45 in Martin County. Executive Director Robert Bozzone said the cuts closed 14 beds in each county, effective last Friday. The Drug Abuse Foundation is losing 10 of its 30 beds in Palm Beach County, Executive Director Alton Taylor said. [continues 558 words]
TALLAHASSEE -- The state attorney's office won't seek jail time for the daughter of Gov. Jeb Bush, after she was arrested this week on a felony charge of prescription drug fraud, State Attorney Willie Meggs said on Friday. Instead of the maximum five years in prison, Noelle Bush, 24, is facing mandatory attendance at a Leon County drug court for up to 18 months, Meggs said. Noelle Bush was arrested early Tuesday after allegedly posing as a doctor in an attempt to purchase the anxiety drug Xanax, Tallahassee police said. [continues 457 words]
The Post's Jan. 18 editorial "New rules for Colombia" was correct in comparing the similarities betwen Colombia and Afghanistan. The damage caused to the United States from the rebels in Colombia far exceeds the harm caused by Al-Qaeda. There were more than 50,000 drug-related deaths compared with approximately 3,000 terrorist-caused deaths in the U.S. last year. In light of this, members of Congress need to do their homework before they arbitrarily place restrictions on our efforts in the war against drugs. Their fear of Colombia becoming another Vietnam-style quagmire is ridiculous. Colombia is fighting only approximately 17,000 rebels, compared with more than a million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong combatants. Additionally, in Vietnam the enemy was supplied by both China and the Soviet Union, while in Colombia, the guerillas rely on kidnapping and an easily destroyed drug crop for support. [continues 78 words]
Imagine a narcotics agent whose sole mission is to stop drug dealers. If the agent does anything else, he oversteps his legal authority. When the agent learns that a suspect plans to kill a police officer, he's not allowed to inform the target or do anything to prevent the hit because his mission is narcotics, not murder. That sounds crazy, and it is. It also describes, without much exaggeration, the U.S. position in Colombia's civil war. Colombia supplies most of this country's cocaine and a large part of its illegal heroin. By law, U.S. aid to Colombia -- about $1 billion in the past year -- can be used to fight drug dealers but not to defeat rebels attempting to overthrow the elected government of Andres Pastrana. Because the drug dealers and rebels often are the same, the distinction is impossible to make. American aid, equipment and advisers might contribute to surveillance flights that spot drug activity, for example, but they couldn't help to spy on rebel troops preparing to strike military targets. [continues 250 words]
Last Monday's Opinion article "Alter drug policy to cut off terrorists" was an illustration of pure logic seen all too seldom in the debate over ways to solve America's drug dilemma. Many experts (not politicians and religious groups) agree that what we are now spending is wasted money, which could be put to use on more education and treatment programs, keeping users off the streets and, most important, keeping them from committing crimes to support their habits. The writer, Robert Sharpe, mentions that England tried from 1920 to the 1960s the practice of a controlled-substance distribution system, but, due to pressure from the United States, the subsequent creation of an unregulated illicit market resulted in the numbers of heroin addicts to skyrocket from fewer than 2,000 in 1970 to roughly 50,000 today. He also mentions that Swiss policy-makers argue that taking marijuana out of organized crime will reduce exposure to heroin and other hard drugs. [continues 73 words]
Kudos to The Post for carrying the excellent article by Robert Sharpe of the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation. It accurately described the close relationship between drug prohibition and the financing of terrorism. South Florida knows too well the corruption caused at all levels of society by our nation's puritanical approach to the drug problem. As Mr. Sharpe so clearly stated, "The drug war doesn't fight crime; it fuels crime." Left unsaid was how current drug policy discourages honest education about drug use and abuse for those who need it most: children. It amazes me that a nation founded upon the basic principle of liberty is so averse to reconsidering such an expensive and unworkable policy. Lake Worth [end]
The Dec. 24 editorial "New anti-terror front could be in Colombia," reminding us of the continuing narco-terrorism America suffers, inflicted upon us by Colombian thugs, was timely. The damage, social devastation and costs of eradicating drug trafficking to both the Colombians and Americans is as atrocious as anything Al-Qaeda has sent our way. The reminder is timely because of the toll drugs have taken, the enormous and continuing costs of only partially effective attempts to intercept them on land and sea, and the corruption they cause. This could be a description of the futile prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s. Common sense and necessity dictates that we legalize and control the use of drugs as we were forced to do with alcohol. Now would be an appropriate time to do so. We surely have delayed this and suffered long enough. Boca Raton [end]
