Bush blasts proposition that would offer drug users treatment

AP ^ | 5/18/2002 | staff

[tragic coup]

Gov. Jeb Bush called a ballot proposition that would allow some drug offenders to escape imprisonment by entering treatment programs "misleading" and said it would "destroy" Florida's drug court program.

Bush, addressing 45 graduates of Miami-Dade County's drug court Friday, said he was disappointed with the state Supreme Court's decision Thursday to allow the proposition onto the 2004 ballot.

"This amendment would destroy the best drug court system in the country," Bush said in an address simulcast to similar graduation ceremonies statewide. "It would require that first- and second-time offenders, irrespective of what their crime was, be given treatment. What the drug court does is provide services, but also says there's a consequence."

But the Campaign for New Drug Policies, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based organization that is spearheading the proposed "Right to Treatment and Rehabilitation for Non-Violent Drug Offenses," maintains that their proposal does include consequences, in some cases more severe than the penalties doled out by drug courts.

"When you wash out of this program, you go to jail. When you are removed for cause from your treatment program, you go to jail," political director Dave Fratello said. "And if it did replace the drug courts, it would replace them with a bigger system that's virtually identical."

Drug court, which Bush said is more cost-effective and helpful to offenders than prison, is a court-supervised program administered by judges and treatment counselors. The proposed amendment is quite similar, where drug offenders would be spared prosecution or sentencing upon successful completion or 18 months in treatment.

Bush's daughter Noelle has been undergoing treatment since her Jan. 29 arrest on charges of trying to buy Xanax with a fraudulent prescription. Bush, who said his daughter is doing well in her treatment, acknowledged that his daughter's situation will be part of the campaign by those who support the proposed amendment.

"I'm proud to have been part of this movement, to really create a comprehensive strategy to deal with the problems of drug and alcohol abuse in our state," Bush told the graduates.

Fratello's group still needs to collect more than 400,000 signatures before actually being placed on the 2004 ballot. Fratello said Friday that there is no guarantee that the group will collect the required signatures, or even if they will make the attempt to complete the process of reaching the ballot.

"There's no plan for that in place right now," Fratello said.

[Nate505]

This ballot proposal is a nuclear weapon aimed at the heart of the drug war and will take away our biggest stick - incarceration.

I'm sure you'd love to do away with the idea of ballot proposals.....

Summer, I hope your teacher friends continue to tell their students that drugs are bad and that their parents should be scared to death of this proposals.

Mmm...drugs are bad, mkay? If this proposal is as awful as you think it is, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Florida LEOS, don't let this ballot proposal pass.

What are they going to do, arrest anyone who might vote for this measure?