Posted on 09/17/2002 10:33:43 AM PDT by The FRugitive
I feel nothing but sympathy and concern for Noelle Bush. Her latest stumble on the rocky road to recovery -- being caught with crack cocaine at a drug rehab center -- shows that she is in desperate need of help. As a parent, I can also easily empathize with the anguish Noelle's father, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, must be experiencing. And I'm in total agreement with his insistence that his daughter's substance abuse problem is "a private issue."
But when I think about the heartless stance the Governor has taken toward the drug problems of those less-fortunate and well-connected than his daughter, my empathy turns to outrage.
While Noelle has been given every break in the book -- and then some -- her father has made it harder for others in her position to get the help they need by cutting the budgets of drug treatment and drug court programs in his state. He has also actively opposed a proposed ballot initiative that would send an estimated 10,000 non-violent drug offenders into treatment instead of jail. I guess what's good for the goose, gets the gander locked away.
Of course, Jeb's wildly inconsistent attitude on the issue -- treatment and privacy for his daughter, incarceration and public humiliation for everyone else -- is part and parcel of the galling hypocrisy that infects America's insane drug war on every level.
The latest example of this madness is last week's early morning DEA raid on a medical marijuana club in Santa Cruz, Calif., that caters to terminally ill patients. Although the hospice-style operation has been lauded by local law enforcement officials for its caring and ethical approach, federal agents stormed the place with guns drawn and chainsaws whirring -- leveling its pot garden, handcuffing ailing patients ( including a paraplegic ), and carting off its founder and director, Valerie Corral, a woman who has been called the Florence Nightingale of the medical marijuana movement.
So much for the Bush administration's compassionate conservatism. And its conservative consistency. Back when he was running for president, candidate Bush declared that medical marijuana is a states' rights issue. "I believe," he said, "each state can choose that decision as they so choose." Although the mangled syntax makes it a little hard to tell exactly what the President was getting at, is it consistent with allowing John Ashcroft to order a holy-roller war against cannabis clubs in California, even though it is one of twelve states that have decriminalized the use of pot for medical purposes?
Surely there has got to be a better use of our limited law enforcement resources than busting grievously ill cancer and AIDS patients searching for relief from their suffering. How about unearthing a terrorist cell or two?
And the White House continues to bombard us with those offensive -- and expensive -- TV spots implying that youthful drug users like Noelle Bush are the moral equivalent of Mohammed Atta. Maybe her Uncle George can get her an audition for the next round of taxpayer-funded ads. Show her pulling some crack out of her shoe while saying, "I helped blow up buildings."
Or does that kind of overheated and stigmatizing rhetoric only apply to those other, non-Bush-family youthful drug users? After all, a glaring double standard has been a hallmark of our nation's drug policy for decades. It's why African Americans make up only 13 percent of the country's drug users but 55 percent of those convicted of drug possession and 74 percent of those sent to jail on possession charges. And why the youthful indiscretions of the rich are routinely treated with a slap on the wrist and a ticket to rehab while poor kids are shipped off to prison.
If America's drug laws were applied consistently, Jeb Bush and his family would be evicted from their publicly funded digs, just as people living in public housing can be thrown out of their homes if any household member or guest is found using drugs -- even if the drug use happened someplace other than in the housing project. And Noelle could find herself joining the tens of thousands of young people unable to get a college education because of a provision in the Higher Education Act that denies financial aid to students convicted of possessing illegal drugs.
But the rich and powerful are judged by a very different set of rules. That's why the staff at Noelle's rehab center tore up a sworn statement incriminating Noelle even though the facility's standard policy is to turn all such matters over to the police.
If, through her pain, Noelle Bush can help open her family's minds as well as their hearts and force them to rethink their disastrous drug policy, the nation -- and millions of young Americans in particular -- will owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude.
I wish her much luck.
Wonder if she feels that her good buddy Johnny McCain's wife should have been sent to the slammer too.
It that is true, Bush's acquiesence in Ashcroft's rape
of the tenth amendment is even more dismaying.
It's too bad Anne Coulter doesn't have Huffington's
take on the War on Some Drugs. That would make
Anne perfect and Huffington disposable. Alas, it
is not so. Huffington has jumped to ship on many
matters, but she stands over Anne on liberty.
This woman became irrelevent years ago. She has to "up the ante" with every new piece so as to stay noticed. I say ignore the crazy woman.
So his daughter got "privacy?" Come on. I'm sympathetic to Huffington's opposition to the "war" on drugs, but she should stick to arguments that pass the laugh test.
This "racism" charge is specious, and it incites racism to the extent that making this bogus charge is itself racist. Since most people convicted of drug possession are actually dealers (and especially so for those sent to prison) the comparison of "users" to "convicted" and "sent to jail" is meaningless. It also makes no allowance for the differences in using and jailing for pot on the one hand, and cocaine and heroin on the other. Unless Huffington wants to jail people for simple possession of small quantities of marijuana, she should shut up about this phony statistic.
Shocking. I was not aware either that Noelle was living with her parents, or that public housing tenants were evicted for the actions of their nonresident adult children.
Does that have anything to do with this column? Let's try to improve the level of discourse around here. Sheesh.
The hypocrisy of the drug warriors stinks to high heaven and that's the truth, whether you hear it from Arianna Stassinopoulos or Rush Limbaugh. Truth is truth.
The Governor of Florida conducted a raid in California?????
Yea, right, than why the insensitive article title ?
Because it is the title?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.