Fourth Of Four Guest Columns

LOCKING UP YOUNG ADDICTS DOESN'T HELP

Florida voters can sign a petition placing a constitutional amendment on
the ballot for the November 2002 election. This proposal - changing
Florida's law - represents the first step toward finally solving Florida's
worsening substance abuse/mental health disaster.

It gives first-or second-time, nonviolent offenders charged with drug
possession the right to treatment and rehabilitation. It removes
prosecutorial discretion and discrimination and emphasizes eliminating
substance abuse and drug dependency, and increasing employability.

H.E.A.R.T. (Help Early Addicts Receive Treatment) supports this amendment
and opposes incarcerating any first-time, nonviolent offenders, not just
"possession" offenses. These young people are sick and need treatment.
Incarceration worsens their plight, cures no one.

Upon arrest, they are stripped of their assets.

Once incarcerated, some are assaulted, brutalized and raped, even
contracting deadly diseases (Hepatitis C, AIDS).

They strengthen their criminal skills and reinforced beliefs that are
self-destructive and costly, building up hate.

They are branded "convicted felons."

Upon release, burdened with unbearable financial obligations by the
government, they have no real hope of successful rehabilitation.

Coerced treatment works, enabling government to reap a massive financial
windfall. For every $1 invested in treatment, government can save more than
$12, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. To achieve such
savings, government must shrink operations where workloads are reduced,
thereby benefiting taxpayers.

We parents are grateful for - really overwhelmed by - the compassion and
generosity of George Soros, John Sperling and Peter Lewis for organizing
and funding this effort as they did in Arizona in 1996 and in California in
2000.

Thanks also to their team: Bill Zimmerman, Dave Fratello and Scott Ehlers.
These non-Floridians have stepped up to the plate to help save Florida's
sick young people, filling the void left by our elected officials.

This amendment allows voters to meet parents' needs. Treat sick kids; don't
make them worse.

The governor claims Florida is winning the drug war. H.E.A.R.T. disagrees.
He even instructs people not to see the movie "Traffic," which documents
the loss of the drug war.

Introducing a U.S. Senate bill recently changing the federal government's
approach to the worsening drug problem, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont,
cited "Traffic" as helping him focus on the urgent need for change.

Don't fight the amendment, Governor. What a shame - spending some $7
million to change Florida's flawed law. H.E.A.R.T. prefers investing such
money in treatment as part of a new Florida action plan that would reduce
demand for evil substances, require governmental funding of treatment and
reform our flawed criminal justice system.

H.E.A.R.T. urges voters to support placing this amendment on the ballot and
vote for it in November 2002.

H.E.A.R.T. asks Florida's governor to stop his team's wrongful assault
against this life-saving, financially rewarding amendment.