STATE CUTS DRUG TREATMENT FUNDS

Now that his own daughter is caught up in the drug war nonsense, how
do you suppose Gov. Jeb Bush will react? Here's the lead paragraph
from a story published in the Miami Herald on Jan. 27, just before the
day Ms. Bush was allegedly caught trying to score some Xenix illegally.

"In a state where nearly a third of all crimes are drug-related, the
Department of Corrections has approved a budget cut that will
eliminate the bulk of drug treatment among inmates and greatly reduce
the state's program to help drug addicts outside the prison system."

The article goes on to say the governor hopes to save the state $13
million by eliminating these and other treatment programs, all part of
a $1 billion reduction in spending. The programs slated for
elimination or a reduction in funding have proven successful and tend
to keep many first time, nonviolent offenders, like Ms. Bush, out of
already crowded prisons.

Here's what Dade County Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren had to say about the
reductions: "As a judge who relies on community-based resources very,
very heavily, I can tell you the elimination of these mental health
and drug treatment beds will be disastrous."

I think it also will be disastrous, politically anyway, if the
governor uses his position to get his daughter preferential treatment
while other, less fortunate minor offenders find themselves in jail
for the same crime. We'll know soon enough.

JIM NORDBY, SR,
Mims