JEB BUSH

Re: "Governor Cries at Drug Summit" [May 1, page B5].

Gov. Bush weeps alligator tears when discussing his daughter's
drug-abuse problems in front of a large crowd of potential voters and
supporters. Those of us not in attendance can empathize, but remain
curious if his tears extend to the tens of thousands of Floridians
arrested each year on nonviolent drug charges who are jammed into
county jails and state prisons. Bush has claimed for three years that
treatment funding is smarter than continued incarceration, but his
actions as governor reveal his true attitudes toward those Floridians
not named Noelle.

Does his pain extend to the more than 50,000 inmates in the Florida
Department of Corrections who need drug treatment but will have to
wait at least a full year because of his eliminating all in-prison
treatment funding? Was he weeping while waging a vigorous, 12-month
campaign against a proposed ballot initiative that would allow
Floridians the right to drug treatment for first and second
nonviolent-drug-possession offenses? This while his daughter is
whisked from the Tallahassee jail into a posh facility within hours of
her arrest.

Jeb Bush apologized for his tears, saying that it was a "genetic trait
I inherited from my father." It seems that another trait he inherited
from "read my lips" Daddy Bush is his ability to say one thing from
his mouth and do the exact opposite with a stroke of his governor's
pen. Please excuse those of us who won't be fooled again.

STEPHEN HEATH
Drug Policy Forum of Florida
Clearwater