Pubdate: Fri, 10 Sep, 1999
Source: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 1999 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/services/letters_editor.htm
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Section: Local
Author: John Kennedy, Tallahassee Bureau

BUSH TO UNVEIL MAJOR DRUG-FIGHTING PROGRAM

TALLAHASSEE -- With stops in three Florida cities, Gov. Jeb Bush today will
unveil a major $540 million initiative aimed at slashing the state's drug
use by half during the next five years.

The first-year Republican governor opens the daylong tour in Orlando, which
led the state in heroin deaths per capita in 1998, when drug-abuse
fatalities skyrocketed across Florida.

Bush will visit the Center for Drug-Free Living near SeaWorld, focusing on
drug-treatment strategies aimed at youth.

His tour will continue at a St. Petersburg drug-prevention organization and
a high-crime street corner in Opalocka, where criminal justice measures
will be spotlighted.

"Next to education, the fight against drugs is one of the governor's major
initiatives," Cory Tilley, a Bush spokesman, said on Thursday. "This is not
a one-time thing that is going to be quickly forgotten."

Bush will be joined on various stops by a handful of state officials,
including Senate President Toni Jennings, R-Orlando, House Speaker John
Thrasher, R-Orange Park, and Jim McDonough, director of the recently
created office of drug control policy. McDonough is a former top aide to
Barry McCaffrey, the federal drug czar.

Like McCaffrey's efforts on the national scale, McDonough and Bush are
outlining a goal of reducing Florida drug use 50 percent by 2004.

The $540 million program to be highlighted today spans 29 state agencies
and ranges from financial support for white-collar employee-assistance
measures to funding 9,500 new drug-treatment beds at a cost of $27.8 million.

Most of the initiatives already are under way -- and included in the
state's $49 billion budget. Bush, however, is using the "bully pulpit" of
the governor's office to bring more coordination and focus to the
drug-fighting efforts, Tilley said.

"It's a question now of trying to make sure we get the maximum return on
our investment," McDonough said. "I think the public is eager to hear about
what we are doing."

Other parts of the strategy are legislative proposals that might prove
controversial to enact -- such as a recommended legal change to bar those
accused of drug crimes from deposing police officers before trial.

That Bush initiative, condemned by constitutional experts, is aimed at
freeing police from time-consuming pretrial activities that keep them from
law-enforcement duties.

An estimated 1.2 million Floridians are regular drug users, representing
about 8 percent of the population. That compares with a 6.2 percent rate
nationally.

Among the most alarming trends, officials say, are the rise of drug use
among juveniles and the death toll from heroin use. Juvenile drug cases
have almost tripled since 1990, and the 206 heroin deaths in Florida last
year were up 51 percent from a year earlier. 
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