[mobglob-discuss] Drug War Casualties

[Graeme Bacque]

Drug War Casualties
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,53470,00.html
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% 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. 
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