GOV. BUSH HAS MADE DRUG TREATMENT A PRIORITY

In his Feb. 20 column, Drug treatment is worth the cost, Robert
Steinback suggests that lowering drug abuse and providing treatment
for those in need isn't a priority for Gov. Jeb Bush.

Just the opposite is the case.

When recession and a terrorist attack combined to impact Florida's
revenues, the Legislature was required by law to put the budget back
into balance. This meant that many areas of high priority took
proportional cuts -- drug control was no exception.

When Gov. Bush put forward his budget for this session, the first
thing that he restored was funding for drug treatment.

Certainly, we have much more to do to address the massive problem of
drug abuse in our state, but in three years the governor has
established a balanced strategy for lowering drug abuse that
emphasizes prevention, treatment and respect for the law. He has
expanded the state's annual treatment and prevention budget by more
than 30 percent, doubled the number of drug courts -- which stress
treatment over jail time for more than 11,000 nonviolent, first-time
drug offenders a year, visited countless treatment and prevention
centers and led the rallying cry of concerned parents and
neighborhoods to turn their children away from drug abuse and to help
the afflicted.

More than $50 million in additional state and federal funds now flow
annually, and Gov. Bush has brought about a 27 percent increase in
adults served in treatment and a 164 percent increase in children
served in treatment.

As a result, drug abuse by Florida's young people is down, our drug
courts are among the most viable in the nation, treatment has been
expanded and made more effective and drug trafficking has been
impacted heavily.

Treatments in state prisons have increased from 10,547 inmates in 1998
to 12,370 in 2001, a 17 percent increase compared to a
prison-population increase of 5 percent. Inmate admissions for the
primary offense of drugs went down between fiscal year 2000 and 2001.

Drug abuse isn't a conservative versus liberal issue. The tragedy that
accompanies drug abuse crosses ideological lines and impacts people
from every walk of life. Gov. Bush understands that and so do experts
and parents of widely divergent political views.

JAMES R. MCDONOUGH Director Florida Office of Drug Control
Tallahassee