DRUG-TREATMENT CUTS LEAVE STATE VULNERABLE

Noelle Bush's problems with drug abuse and the law may focus attention
on Florida's failure to provide adequate drug treatment for families
who don't have the Bushes' resources.

Late last month, the Florida Department of Corrections approved a $13
million cut that will eliminate many drug-treatment programs for
inmates and for people getting treatment in community programs. The
cuts are severe. The Comprehensive Alcoholism Rehabilitation Program
has operated 45 inpatient treatment beds for the state in Palm Beach
County and 45 in Martin County. Executive Director Robert Bozzone said
the cuts closed 14 beds in each county, effective last Friday. The
Drug Abuse Foundation is losing 10 of its 30 beds in Palm Beach
County, Executive Director Alton Taylor said.

"Without treatment," Mr. Bozzone says, offenders "are going to go back
to jail. They're going to commit crimes." Nearly one-third of all
crimes in Florida are drug-related. The DOC reports that more than 70
percent of offenders who complete drug programs stay out of prison.

Statewide, residential treatment centers are cutting more than 30
percent of inpatient beds. In addition, the state no longer will
subsidize outpatient treatment for tens of thousands of patients
statewide. While the per-person charge can be as little as $15 or $20
a week, many drug abusers can't afford that much and could lose their
only alternative to incarceration.

Cuts also affect many drug courts across the state. The innovative
courts offer treatment instead of jail to first-time offenders
motivated to change their lives. Palm Beach County's new drug court
benefits from a federal start-up grant and from a fund that State
Attorney Barry Krischer created, says Diana Cunningham, executive
director of the Criminal Justice Commission. The loss of state money,
however, is ominous. "We feel sort of safe today," Ms. Cunningham
said, "but that's not a long-term thing."

In addition to cutting the corrections department, the Legislature,
trying to close a $1 billion budget gap, cut drug-treatment money in
the social-services budget. James McDonough, director of the Florida
Office of Drug Control, had told Palm Beach County officials he was
optimistic that trust fund money could be shifted to cover the
expected $6 million reduction. But last week he said, "My optimism
didn't pan out." The legislative panel in charge of the trusts refused
to shift the money, resulting in a 15 percent drop in drug-treatment
money -- a cut that feels like 30 percent, Col. McDonough says,
because the full burden falls on half the fiscal year, which ends June
30.

Col. McDonough says that since taking office in 1999, Gov. Bush has
increased drug-treatment money and that his budget for next year would
restore all treatment money lost from the social-services budget.
Still, the governor signed off on the budget cuts without looking for
other options. Nor does Gov. Bush favor all treatment measures. He
opposes a ballot initiative that would require treatment instead of
prison for most nonviolent offenders. "To suggest there should be no
penalties for continued drug use," Gov. Bush said in August, "is to
stick our heads in the sand."

Col. McDonough wants the Legislature to quickly pass a bill that, with
some creative bureaucratic shuffling, could plug this year's gap.
Lawmakers should pause in their busy redistricting schedule to help
Col. McDonough. While Gov. Bush has agreed to seek reinstatement of $5
million lost from the prisons budget, according to a DOC spokesman,
most of the money for treating inmates would not be restored. That
shortsighted approach in the long run will hurt offenders as well as
their future victims and taxpayers who build and staff prisons.

As Gov. Bush pointed out, many families cope with drug abuse. In
Florida, however, budget cuts are making it hard for families to cope,
and the governor is part of that problem. Because of who she is, Ms.
Bush will get the treatment she needs. Gov. Bush should support
policies that give all Floridians the same advantages.