TOO OFTEN, DRUG WAR TARGETS ONLY VICTIMS

Late-night comedians have the drug hungers of Noelle Bush, daughter of
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and niece of the nation's president, 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 last week at a drug treatment
center in Orlando, where she was in a court-ordered drug rehabilitation
program.

We already knew Noelle's problem was serious when she spent three days in
jail in July for contempt of court after she was found with prescription
pills that did not belong to her. They reportedly belonged to a treatment
center worker 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 Noelle's latest incident, showed the
proper attitude for a parent in such circumstances, which is compassion.
The tragedy is that there are 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 for drug treatment programs which, like those in
every other state, have waiting lists of drug abusers seeking help.

And he says 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 this November's ballot in Ohio and the District of Columbia, and similar
measures are under way in other states.

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 drug
treatment funding.

As Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the New York-based Drug Policy
Alliance, which backs such treatment-alternative 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 . . .
Think about this as a medical problem, or a psychological problem. No one
'treatment' approach works for everyone.''

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

Our hearts should go out to Noelle Bush, but we should not stop there.
Nonviolent 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 columnist for the Chicago Tribune. His column appears
occasionally.