FOR BUSHES, WAR ON DRUGS HITS HOME

Late-night comedians have the drug hungers of Noelle Bush, daughter of
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and niece of the nation's president, George W. Bush,
to kick around some more. But let's get serious for a moment.

Noelle, 25, needs help. She has, in the parlance of these times, "issues."

She was found with crack cocaine in her shoe Monday night at a drug
treatment center in Orlando where she was in a court-ordered rehabilitation
program.

You know somebody has got a S-E-R-I-O-U-S drug problem when he or she is
caught with illicit drugs while in rehab.

But we already knew Noelle's problem was serious when she spent three days
in jail back in July for contempt of court after she was found with
prescription pills that did not belong to her. They belonged to a treatment
center worker, according to news reports, and had been taken from a cabinet.

Noelle Bush was assigned to the treatment facility back in January after
she was arrested on charges of trying to obtain Xanax, an anti-anxiety
drug, with a fraudulent prescription at a Tallahassee pharmacy
drive-through window.

Her father, facing reporters after her latest bust, showed the proper
attitude for a parent in such circumstances, which is compassion. "This is
a private issue as it relates to my daughter and myself and my wife," he
said. "The road to recovery is a rocky one for a lot of people who have
this kind of problem."

There are hundreds of thousands of other Noelles out there whose fathers
and families are not well-off or well-connected and they don't have the
opportunity to stay in nice treatment centers.

Instead, they spend their nights in jail.

Gov. Bush and his wife wisely requested that their daughter be referred to
one of the best drug treatment centers in their state. But the governor has
reduced state funding to drug treatment programs that, like those in every
other state, have waiting lists of drug abusers seeking help.

And he said he opposes a treatment-instead-of-incarceration initiative that
proponents expect to put on the Florida ballot in 2004.

A similar reform measure passed in California in 2000, new ones will appear
on November ballots in Ohio and the District of Columbia, and movements are
trying to get similar measures passed in other states, either by ballot
initiative or referendum.

In California, for example, drug abusers have to be sent to treatment after
their first two arrests if they are not involved in other criminal
activity. Those who fail while in treatment, as Noelle did, must be offered
an alternative form of treatment, not jail.

California's measure also doubled state funding for treatment to reduce the
waiting lists. Ohio's measure calls for a similar increase in its drug
treatment funding.

As Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy
Alliance, which backs such alternative treatment measures, said, "Noelle
has a problem with drugs. What she needs is help. If one form of treatment
does not work the answer is not prison, but to try another form of
treatment. And if that doesn't work, then [try] another form. Think about
this as a medical problem or a psychological problem. No one 'treatment'
approach works for everyone."

Indeed, unless the Noelles out there actually harm others or put others at
great risk, such as by driving while under the influence of drugs, we
should be able to do better than prison.

Non-violent drug abusers don't need jail. They need help. Our war on drugs
need not be a war on the victims.

Clarence Page is a member of the Tribune's editorial board.