Sorry about the title..what do you folks think of this op/ed piece? The latest Bush hypocrisy Gov. Jeb Bush calls for jail time for nonviolent drug offenders as his daughter gets sent to rehab. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Arianna Huffington Sept. 16, 2002 | 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 Gov. 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 nonviolent 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 mar1juana 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 mar1juana movement. So much for the president's compassionate conservatism, and its conservative consistency. Back when he was running for president, candidate George W. Bush declared that medical mar1juana 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 12 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.
i agree...it seems to me that jail time doesn't solve the problem.. however, i know a gentleman who feared the threat of the "three strikes, you're out" mandatory sentence that he cleaned up after strike two...fear can be a great motivator...but i hate that we have people locked up for long extended periods of time for possession charges.
Can someone fill me in, did he help her beat a rap, or what? What is the typical punishment for what she did?
Wow. A blistering indictment of the Administration's drug policies and the hypocrisy of Jeb Bush. I haven't always agreed with Huffington's stance on some issues in the past, but she is on fire with this one. Absolutely great column. Agree 100%.
I am as economically conservative as the come but I would never call myself a republican because of bull**** like this. Anyone not in the sacred circle would be in jail right now. It is an extremely f*cked up thing. I voted for GW and I will again because the most important thing for me is to lower taxes but I just hope that one day I may make a large contribution, not just financially, to the libertarian party.
Drug war - bad. Bad use of public money. Bad criminal and con culture. Bad law. Public intoxication and reckless endangerment is all the drug law we need. We don't need specific laws for specific drugs. Idiots and hand-wringers have taken us down this foolish path. The piece is not well written, though. It sounds like a woman's magazine piece.
It might be important to note here that Arianna Huffington is no one's tool, and is certainly not writing this piece as a member of the "liberal" media. She is a very opionated, completely independent thinker, whose ex-husband ran for office in California as a Republican. If I remember correctly, she was his campaign manager. I don't always agree with her, but I very much appreciate her independence and outspokenness. She is one of many things I already miss about Politically Incorrect. And she is, of course, right on in this article.
It's not a Right - Left thing, or a Black - White thing. It's all about $$$ and influence. Great article.
I thought I read somewhere that those magazines were actually laid out by women editors etc. Anyway, I'm in favor of a War on the War on Drugs. More education. More treatment. Harsher sentences for driving etc under the influence. Although I'm not sure what model to pursue, I'm not comfortable with completely legalizing ALL drugs with free access to all.
That happens all the time Republican, Democrat and everywhere in between. It is about money and privilege...not ideology. For the record, I believe that (for the most part) the drug laws are idiotic. The only drug I'd legalize would be mar1juana. I've never used it, but have read a ton of literature on it and it doesn't seem to be any more deleterious than alcohol. You should be able to buy it a Kroger. The government could tax the hell out of it. Take that influx of cash and the savings from not putting police resources into it and we could then lower the income tax. Problem solved. I do believe that anybody driving while under the influence of mar1juana should be extradited to Utah and face the firing squad. Dammit Cohen...don't give her any ideas!!!!
I've done every drug in the book in my short lifetime. I've even made some up. I am a damn drug addict by nature now, I've created so many deep-rooted addictive tendencies in my behavioral patterns that I'm having a helluva time digging them up right now. I went through the whole state rehab thing...they sent me there after they pulled me out of prison and suspended my sentence in favor of probation. That time I spent there was WAY more productive than the time I spent in prison. All anyone did in prison was make more connections and devise ways to run back up in "the game" without screwing up this time around. Rehab actually gave you a chance to succeed, to change yourself. It is money well spent. I know Gov. Bush should know this better than anyone in Florida by now, even though it's not working for his daughter just yet. He knows that the only reason she continues to mess up despite the program she's in is that she has no fear of reprocussions. That's his fault and he can't help it. It's a sad situation, but there's no reason to not take something from it. I would like to see Jeb pull a Michael Douglas in "Traffic" and bust a 180 on the drug war. Hopefully some good can come out of all this for the whole of Florida and our country, because there's nothing but drama stemming from what we have going at present.
How I hate explaining jokes. Oh well. I wasn't commenting on the gender of the writers/editors, but rather the inanity of most magazines, whether aimed at men or women. Thus FHM is just as r****ded as Cosmopolitan, despite their target audiences. I've read my share of both, mind you... Mrs. JB rocks. She always comes up with the best one-liners.
We finally agree dimsie. She has some great one liners. I should know. I've been the target of a few.
