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Drug War Casualties (more on politics and the wod)
Fox News ^ | 5/23/02 | Radley Balko

Posted on 08/15/2003 6:36:35 PM PDT by Ed_in_NJ

Drug War Casualties

Thursday, May 23, 2002
By Radley Balko

Samantha Monroe was 12 years old in 1981 when her parents enrolled her in the Sarasota, Fla., branch of Straight Inc., an aggressive drub rehab center for teens.

Barely a teen, Samantha also had no history of drug abuse. But she spent the next two years of her life surviving Straight.

She was beaten, starved and denied toilet privileges for days on end. She describes her "humble pants," a punishment that forced her to wear the same pants for six weeks at a time. Because she was allowed just one shower a week, the pants often filled with feces, urine and menstrual blood. Often she was confined to her closet for days. She gnawed through her jaw during those "timeout" sessions, hoping she'd bleed to death.

She says that after she was raped by a male counselor, "the wonderful state of Florida paid for and forced me to have an abortion."

There are hundreds of Straight stories like Samantha's. Wes Fager enrolled his son in a Springfield, Va., chapter of Straight on the advice of a high school guidance counselor. Fager didn't see his son again until three months later — after he'd escaped and developed severe mental illness.

Since then, Fager's set out to clear the air on Straight. He has accumulated stories like Samantha's and his son's on a clearinghouse Web site. They are stories of suicides and attempted suicides, rapes, forced abortions, molestations, physical abuse, lawsuits, court testimonies, and extensive documentation of profound psychological abuse at Straight chapters all over the country.

Yet, the Straight model of drug treatment is thriving, with the trend toward "boot camp" style rehab centers growing more and more en vogue and Straight's founders, high-powered Republican boosters Mel and Betty Sembler, wielding enormous influence over U.S. drug policy.

Mel Sembler is currently serving as President Bush's ambassador to Italy, and the Semblers serve on the boards of almost every major domestic anti-drug program. They are longtime close associates of the Bush family, and are behind efforts to defeat medicinal marijuana initiatives all over the country. Despite the horrors that have surfaced about Straight's history, they are proud and unrepentant about the program.

With more and more U.S. states turning to mandatory treatment instead of incarceration for minor drug offenses — with Mel and Betty Sembler continuing to flex political muscle in the power corridors of the drug war — the story of Straight is one worth hearing.

Straight was spun off of a rehab program called The Seed based on the "synanon" method of treatment. Established in 1972, the program lost its funding after a congressional investigation turned up evidence of brainwashing and cult-like mind control tactics. But a Florida congressman named Bill Young persisted. He found advocates in the Semblers and persuaded them to start a similar rehab center in St. Petersburg, which they called "Straight Incorporated."

Despite allegations of abuse from escaped members and pending lawsuits, over the next 15 years Straight won laudatory praise in Republican circles. Luminaries from Nancy Reagan to Princess Diana visited Straight branches and touted their successes (though by most estimates only about 25 percent of Straight "clients" ever completed the program).

But Straight's tactics soon caught up to it in the courts. A college student won a false imprisonment claim of $220,000 in 1983, and another claim cost Straight $721,000 in 1990. A Straight spin-off called Kids of North Jersey lost a $4.5 million claim in 2000. Straight chapters across the country began to shut down, culminating with the last branch in Atlanta closing in 1993.

But the Straight philosophy was far from finished. Many chapters and directors reopened new clinics that employed the same tactics under different names — such as KIDS, Growing Together and SAFE. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush visited and praised SAFE, despite the fact that a Miami television station reported widespread Straight-like abuse at the facility in a 2000 expose.

Amidst mounting lawsuit losses and bad publicity throughout the 1990's, the umbrella organization Straight Inc. changed its name in 1996 to the Drug Free America Foundation. DFAF thrives today — receiving $400,000 in federal subsidies in 2000 and $320,000 from the Small Business Administration.

"It amazes me that despite the pattern of complaints and abuse allegations, Straight chapters can simply change their names and continue to operate," says Rick Ross, a cult expert and intervention specialist. Ross says there's an unfortunate market for "rehab" centers that take burdensome children off the hands of troubled parents.

Most troubling, however, is the considerable and continuing political clout of Straight Inc.'s founders. Former President Bush once shot a television commercial for DFAF, and designated the Semblers' program as one of his "thousand points of light."

Long a presence in Florida Republican circles, Mel Sembler was tapped as ambassador to Australia in 1989. Today he serves the younger Bush as ambassador to Italy, and he served on the board of the 2000 Republican National Convention.

Betty Sembler co-chaired Jeb Bush's campaign committee. In return, the governor declared Aug. 8, 2000, "Betty Sembler Day" in Florida — due, he said, to her work "protecting children from the dangers of drugs."

She also serves on the board of DARE, the largely failed anti-drug program for elementary school students.

DFAF also worked with then-governor Bush on anti-drug programs in Texas, and today claims to have his ear on national drug policy as well. Indeed, Arizona prosecutor and Sembler favorite Rick Romley was on Bush's short list for drug czar. Though Romley wasn't nominated, Bush did tap staunch drug warrior John Walters. The nomination caused Betty Sembler to remark, ".... we have lacked the leadership and support of the White House ... until now."

"It's really shocking that the Semblers are still lauded and honored after all that's come out about their organization," says cult expert Ross, a self-described Republican.

Last year, a reporter from the Canadian e-zine Cannabis News asked Betty Sembler in person about the horror stories he'd read from Straight survivors. "They should get a life," Sembler replied. "I am proud of everything we have done. There's nothing to apologize for. The legalizers are the ones who should be apologizing."

That's the attitude of the drug war's power duo, who can be unrepentant about the lives their program destroyed because they believe a win-at-all-costs approach is the only way to remove the scourge of drugs from society. Shattered lives, suicides, forced abortions, fractured psyches — all necessary casualties of the drug war, and nothing to apologize for.

Radley Balko is a writer living in Arlington, Va., and publisher of The Agitator.com.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: dfaf; drugs; fager; sembler; straight; wodlist
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"Drug Czar" Walters has HIS slot because his daddy was a buddy of Bush the Elder - not because of any qualifications.

This item was initially on the Fox News website, but has been 'pulled' without explanation.

1 posted on 08/15/2003 6:36:36 PM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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To: Ed_in_NJ
This sounds a whole lot like bad old-folks homes. Warehousing captives at absolute minimum cost while sucking up huge amounts of governement money.
2 posted on 08/15/2003 6:43:50 PM PDT by agitator (Ok, mic check...line one...)
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To: Ed_in_NJ; jmc813
Thanks for the article Ed. Nothing new in this news for those who know. It may surprise some that this is all "accepted, acceptable and normal".
Last year, a reporter from the Canadian e-zine Cannabis News asked Betty Sembler in person about the horror stories he'd read from Straight survivors. "They should get a life," Sembler replied. "I am proud of everything we have done. There's nothing to apologize for. The legalizers are the ones who should be apologizing."
What a callous b|t(h Mrs. Sembler is (someone ought to be ashamed of theirselves)!
Fine Republican examples. (NOT)

jmc813, my turn to ping you.
My, some of this is so familiar!

3 posted on 08/15/2003 7:16:53 PM PDT by philman_36
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To: jmc813
Wans't there some mention quite some time back about the rehabilitqation center industry being all for the WOsD?
Kinda vindicates the supposition doesn't it.
Lots of "treatment" folks on the WOD threads.
Just another money scam IMO...I'd start looking into other owners and kickbacks if I were a paid journalist interested in this issue.
4 posted on 08/15/2003 7:20:51 PM PDT by philman_36
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To: agitator
...and doing more harm than good.
5 posted on 08/15/2003 8:27:59 PM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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To: philman_36
Seems that there are loonies on the RIGHT, too!
6 posted on 08/15/2003 8:40:55 PM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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To: Ed_in_NJ
Seems that there are loonies on the RIGHT, too!
How does that old song go...
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you

An apt song when taken in perspective.

7 posted on 08/15/2003 8:54:45 PM PDT by philman_36
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To: philman_36
bump for the early risers
8 posted on 08/16/2003 4:35:46 AM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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To: Ed_in_NJ
...and the later ones.
9 posted on 08/16/2003 6:32:49 AM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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To: Wolfie; vin-one; WindMinstrel; philman_36; Beach_Babe; jenny65; AUgrad; Xenalyte; Bill D. Berger; ..
WOD Ping
10 posted on 08/16/2003 8:47:38 AM PDT by jmc813 (Check out the FR Big Brother 4 thread! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/943368/posts)
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To: robertpaulsen
Friends of yours?
11 posted on 08/16/2003 10:05:42 AM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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To: Ed_in_NJ
"Friends of yours?"

What friends?

The writer? Naw, he's a 28-year-old libertarian freelance writer who works for the Cato Institute. He's still an idealist.

The owner of the website (webdiva.org) through which is the only way to access this 15 month old article? Hardly. She blames Straight, Inc. for the suicide of her drug addicted brother, committed a year after dropping out of the program.

Straight, Inc.? Nope. That program shut down 10 years ago.

We're talking about a defunct drug rehabilitation organization where people voluntarily paid a good amount of money to partake in. Yeah, it was tough. Drug addiction is a hell of alot tougher.

But, I ask you. What does this have to do with Walters and the WOD? Are they responsible for drug addiction? Is that what you're saying by posting this old article about an organization that no longer exists?

That's insane. Legalize drugs and you'll have 1000X the horror stories.

12 posted on 08/16/2003 3:03:54 PM PDT by robertpaulsen
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To: robertpaulsen
DFAF exists today, run by the same nutcases that started Straight. Still ripping off our tax dollars, fueled by hysteria, exploited by drugwar profiteers, and producing extremely poor return for the money.

Since you seem to share their rational approach to the problem, and seem to benefit from the wod, I thought you might find this of interest. Apparently you are/were already aware of it.

Do you also support mental institutions where the patients are beaten?

13 posted on 08/16/2003 3:46:25 PM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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To: robertpaulsen
You seem to be mocking the goofy pro-dope libertarian core argument: if dope were legal, no one would use it let alone profit it.

All addiction, all drug-related crime, all drug-related suicides occur because there is a war on drugs.

Hard to believe, I realize--but just ask any pro-dope libertarian to explain it to you. He'll be happy to, between bong hits.

14 posted on 08/16/2003 3:53:29 PM PDT by Kevin Curry (Put Justice Janice Rogers Brown on the Supreme Court--NOW)
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To: robertpaulsen
What does this have to do with Walters and the WOD?

If you really need it explained, Walters hands out wod money to the profiteers. He is the 'drug czar' because his father was pals/served with Bush 41, and because the Semblers approve of him: the Bush, Sembler and Walters clans are one big happy political bunch.

The wod is a farce, partly because the chieftans are political, and partly because the profiteers don't have to show RESULTS in order to get more money; they can just keep on pretending to fight the war, and keep on feeding from the public trough.

15 posted on 08/16/2003 3:57:16 PM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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To: Ed_in_NJ
Yep, she would be far better off if your pipe dream became reality and she was down in the gutter mainlining legalized heroin and methedrine.
16 posted on 08/16/2003 4:02:51 PM PDT by dennisw (G_d is at war with Amalek for all generations)
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To: dennisw
And what exactly is my "pipe dream?"
17 posted on 08/16/2003 4:09:49 PM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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To: Ed_in_NJ
FYI bttt
18 posted on 08/16/2003 7:49:03 PM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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To: Ed_in_NJ
There should be trials of these scavenging profiteers.

They might laugh scornfully at that idea today, but perhaps they will grasp it like a life-line within a few years.

19 posted on 08/16/2003 8:02:10 PM PDT by headsonpikes
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To: headsonpikes
Accountability is a lot to ask for from our feds, but some of the wod money is little more than payoffs - grants to anyone that wants to start an 'anti-drug' program. Of course it doesn't hurt to be 'known' by the people handing out the cash.
20 posted on 08/16/2003 8:20:44 PM PDT by Ed_in_NJ
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