THANK YOU JEB AND JIM

Elected officials do jobs that are often thankless. Well we're here to
thank Governor Jeb Bush and his drug czar James McDonough for their
drug policies, now in effect for almost five years.

First in line to thank Jeb and Jim are treatment centers and recovery
programs in strong need of state funding. While many centers do take
in revenue via insurance payouts and patients who can pay, the
majority deal with clients less able. The 2003 budget passed in
Tallahassee slashed state funding by over 25%. Bush did nothing to
fight these cuts, which were not publicized until a few weeks after
his daughter Noelle successfully completed her own 18 month state
funded drug treatment program in Orlando.

People with true drug abuse problems should also thank Jeb and Jim,
though by their count this includes over 1.5 million Floridians. In
Jeb and Jim's policy, any use of illegal drugs, including occasional
use of marijuana, constitutes Abuse. Therefore, every pot user that
can be arrested and jailed is now 'clean' and can be included as part
of Bush's stated goal to cut drug abuse in Florida 50% by 2005.
Meanwhile, those with actual dependency and abuse issues are put on
lengthy waiting lists for treatment centers clogged with court-ordered
marijuana offenders who must be 'cured' of their pot use.

Minority communities owe Jeb and Jim thanks. McDonough's alleged
'balance between treatment, prevention and enforcement' is marked by
cuts in treatment spending and increases in massive police actions
like those conducted in Tampa and St. Petersburg this past summer,
when almost 1000 people were arrested - most of who were minorities.
While white citizens make up 65% of the population they get 72% of the
drug and alcohol treatment admissions in Florida and only account for
25% of the state prison admissions for drugs. Meanwhile, Blacks get
22% of treatment admissions and 73% of prison admissions for drugs
while only 14% of the state population.

Doctors can be thankful as they try to decipher unwritten guidelines
from McDonough's office restricting how they can prescribe pain drugs
without being subjected to arrest and prosecution. Patients in need
thus enjoy lack of access to needed medicines, simply because a few
irresponsible people choose to abuse them. Speaking of patients,
medical marijuana patients can thank Jeb and Jim for their being
subject to arrest and prison if they prefer using pot to heavy duty,
addictive narcotics from the pharmacy. This even as Canada, most of
Western Europe and nine U.S. states have legalized marijuana for
medical reasons.

Saddest of all, morticians statewide have increased business thanks to
Tallahassee drug policies. Cocaine related deaths are up 23% since
1999 and heroin deaths are up 25%. Total drug-related deaths have
increased 17% since the FME began tracking drug deaths in 2000.

How about the kids of Florida? They can thank Jeb and Jim for being
utterly confused about drugs in general. Children as young as six
years old in the care of DCF are routinely administered psychotropic
drugs as a means of behavior control. Other kids wonder why their
friends' parents can drink all the alcohol they wish, while their own
parents who prefer marijuana at home are deemed criminals. Our youth
are taught anti-drug programs in schools by armed police officers.
Then they observe other police officers enjoying tobacco and/or
alcohol in their off hours, while the DARE officer tells them being
drug-free is cool.

Lest the above accolades seem dubious in nature, there is one group
from which Jeb and Jim do warrant a standing ovation. That would be
the prison-industrial complex. No state in the union enjoyed the 3.9%
increase in new inmates that Florida experienced this past June,
thanks primarily to drug arrests. McDonough insists that only 'repeat
offenders' and 'drug sellers' go to Florida prisons. What he doesn't
tell you is that for thousands annually, the repeat offense could be
something as minor as failing a urine test while on probation, or
being caught a second time with a bag of pot or a few grams of
cocaine. And this utterly discounts the effect of losing six months to
a year housed in a county jail for simple drug possesion, which is the
fate for thousands more every month statewide.

Even as drug treatment funds are being eliminated within the prison
system, Bush is asking for $66 million in new tax dollars to build
another 4000 prison beds. In light of McDonough's repeated
declarations about how treatment is smarter financially than jailing
drug offenders, Bush is basically telling taxpayers he will spend in
the less productive fashion.

So take a bow, Governor Bush and Czar McDonough. You've earned the
applause. Unfortunately, Florida must live with the effects of your
drug policy priorities for at least the next three years.