First lady praised, asked to do more

Advocates for children ask Columba Bush to lobby the governor to give more funds to drug treatment programs.

By LUCY MORGAN, Times Tallahassee Bureau Chief

© St. Petersburg Times
published February 7, 2003

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida first lady Columba Bush should start lobbying at home to improve the programs available for young women prone to drug and alcohol abuse, advocates for children's programs said Thursday.

Mrs. Bush appeared in Washington this week with Joe Califano, chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, to promote programs that help women overcome such problems. They made a joint appearance on NBC's Today show on Wednesday.

Califano and Mrs. Bush jointly released the results of a new national study indicating that young women are more vulnerable to substance-abuse problems.

Gov. Jeb Bush and Mrs. Bush have been advocates for drug-abuse programs since long before their daughter Noelle, 25, was arrested last year on prescription fraud charges when she tried to get the drug Xanax at a Tallahassee pharmacy. Mrs. Bush said their daughter is doing better in a court-ordered drug abuse treatment program. She said she wants to share her experience to help other families deal with it.

But as many as 40,000 children will be denied drug treatment services that have a proven track record of success as the result of cuts included in the $54-billion budget proposed by the governor last month, said Roy Miller, president of the Children's Campaign Inc. Some of the programs Bush wants to cut help vulnerable young women who are susceptible to addiction, he said.

"We applaud Mrs. Bush's proposals to increase government investment in gender-specific services," Miller said. "We have tremendous compassion for her role modeling to mothers across America whose daughters are in crisis, but we would encourage her to begin her advocacy at home because these programs are being eliminated from the Florida budget."

The budget would close all 19 Practical Academic Cultural Education centers in the state, where more than 4,855 girls receive gender-specific treatment, and would drastically cut other programs that benefit children at risk, Miller said.

Between 35,000 and 40,000 children in Florida will not be able to participate in prevention programs that have been built over 30 years by nonprofit organizations that rely on the state for help. As a result, Miller said, the cuts will mean many children sinking deeper into the criminal justice system.

Bush has said the cuts, though painful, are necessary to balance the budget.

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