FIGHT AGAINST DRUG ABUSE WILL CONTINUE WITHOUT STATE OFFICE

PANAMA CITY -- With or without a statewide Office of Drug Control,
local advocates will continue their work to prevent substance abuse.

Gov.-elect Rick Scott announced recently he would close the Florida
Office of Drug Control, which prompted a critical response from the
Drug Free America Foundation.

"Without this office, Florida will most assuredly face the prospect
of increased substance abuse, treatment costs, medical costs, crime
and incarceration," Executive Director Calvina Fay said in a news release.

Locally though, the closure won't have a profound impact, said Tunnie
Miller, vice president of the Florida Association of DUI Programs and
CEO of Chemical Addictions Recovery Effort (CARE) in Bay County.

"To my knowledge it was a very small office," Miller said. "It didn't
really impact us on a local level."

Miller was involved with a few task forces organized by the office.
Building consensus among diverse groups was a strength of the office,
Miller said, but that function could probably performed by another
state agency.

The Office of Drug Control was created in 1999 by former Gov. Jeb
Bush to oversee drug abuse prevention and treatment efforts.

The office also acted as a "clearinghouse" for updates on best
practices in the field of substance abuse prevention, said Julia
Ruschmann, community projects director for the Bay County Health
Department. Despite the loss of federal grant money funneled through
the Office of Drug Control, Ruschmann's programs and coalitions,
primarily aimed at educating young people about the dangers of
substance abuse, will survive.

"The biggest thing was the funding," Ruschmann said. "We will
continue to try to have a presence ...without those funds."