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From 1976 to 1993
Straight, Inc. was the biggest chain of juvenile drug rehabilitation programs
in the world--and one of the most destructive. Forty former clients have
committed suicide; others are insane. In 1996 Straight changed its name
to Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF). DFAF does not treat kids for drug
addiction, rather it helps small businesses set up drug free workplace
environments. DFAF is also a major force behind national and international
drug policy.
Straight was preceded
by a teen treatment program called The Seed which was funded by the National
Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The Seed closed its expansion programs
after the US Senate accused it of brainwashing American kids and ordered
NIDA to require Seed parents and clients to sign NIDA forms acknowledging
that they were participating in human experimentation. Drug Czar Robert
DuPont was then the director of NIDA. Mel and Betty Sembler, two multimillionaires
from Saint Petersburg, Florida, had a kid in The Seed. They opened Straight
which was patterned after The Seed. Robert DuPont left federal service
and became a paid consultant for Straight defending Straight around the
country in many civil suits for alleged abuse. Dr. DuPont has testified
that it was his idea to make Straight a national program. He has testified
that it was he who suggested to Nancy Reagan that she visit Straight,
which she did do consequently helping make Straight the major program
it became.
Some think that Mel
Sembler should have gone to prison for what Straight did to children,
but that did not happen. Instead he bought into Republican politics and
is now the US Ambassador to Italy. DFAF is one of the major power brokers
setting national and international drug policy. In 1988 Melvin Sembler
recommended a novel solution to the US drug problem. "Test every
16-year-old for drugs before we issue a drivers license," he declared
then.[1] It appears that Mel Sembler through his DFAF is trying to acheive
his universal, though un-Constitutional goal. But who will be paid to
do the actual testing? The DFAF does not do drug testing, but its partner
National Drug and Alcohol Testing, Inc.in St. Petersburg does. It received
$234,000 from the Small Business Administration (SBA) as part of The Drug-Free
Workplace Act of 1998. Calvina Fay, executive director of DFAF, used to
operate a drug testing company. Just before coming to DFAF she was the
director of the Houston Drug-Free Business Initiative which had as a charter
sponsor Drug Screens, Inc.--a drug testing company. Calvina's former Houston
group got $170,000 from the SBA while DFAF's took in $314,539. Read now
how Mel Sembler has turned the knowledge he has gained about drugs from
treating children at Straight into a formula to set national and
international drug policy.
National
- Phase 1. Make high school
athletes pee in a jar. Robert
DuPont is on the Advisory Board for DFAF and so is Florida
governor Jeb Bush. After he ran unsuccessfully for governor
the first time, Jeb Bush created a foundation for Florida's
future. Major contributors to his foundation were Mel Sembler
and H. Wayne Huizenga. Among other enterprises, Huizenga
owns Psychemedics--the world's premier drug hair testing
company. Robert DuPont is the chairman of the scientific
advisory board for Psychemedics. DuPont has partnered with
former DEA head Peter Bensinger to form Bensinger and DuPont.
One contract they have is to pre-screen workers for the
US Post Office for illegal drug use. It is the biggest pre-screening
program in the world. In Veronia School District vs Acton,
in 1992 an Oregon school district tried to force high school
athletes to undergo suspicionless drug testing. This is
an easy sale because a good argument can be made that contact
sports players are at a greater risk of injury if they are
on drugs. Robert DuPont was the only expert witness called
in a case that made it to the US Supreme Court. The court
ruled for the school district. While DuPont testified that
suspicionless drug testing of high school athletes was for
their own good, he also had a conflict of interest. The
more people are drug tested, the more money he can make.
- Preliminary to phase
2. Kill the medical marijuana initiative (Proposition 215).
In November
1996, California voters passed Proposition 215 which permitted
Californians to use marijuana for medical purposes. The
federal government fought the initiative and took the case
to the US Supreme Court which ruled for the federal government.
Attorney David Evans of The Legal Foundation Against Illicit
Drugs (a front group for the DFAF. Mr. Evans is now a member
of DFAF's Institute on Global Drug Policy) and Dr. Eric
Voth, Chairman of the Institute on Global Drug Policy, co-authored
an Amicus Curiae brief in support of the US government's
effort to remove the proposition.
- Phase 2. Make high school
kids participating in any activity ( including the history
club) pee in a jar. Getting
the courts to suspend a child athlete's Fourth Amendment
rights is easy; getting the court to do the same for a girl
in the history club was more challenging. The case, which
again went to the US Supreme Court, was POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY,
OKLAHOMA Petitioner, v. EARLS Respondent. Again David Evans
of The Legal Foundation Against Illicit Drugs wrote an Amicus
Curiae brief for the court. Amongst the signers were: Drug
Free America Foundation; Legal Foundation Against Illicit
Drugs; Institute on Global Drug Policy; Eric Voth, MD, director
of Institute on Global Drug Policy; Bensinger DuPont &
Associates; Robert L. Dupont, M.D.; Peter Bensinger; Julie
Murdoch, Esq. of Bensinger, DuPont & Associates; Donald
Ian Macdonald, M.D.--Straight's former national research
director turned White House Drug Czar; Stephanie Haynes,
Save Our Society From Drugs ™ (S.O.S.™)--a Betty
Sembler foundation.
- Phase 3. Make all high
school kids pee in a jar. Coming.
- Phase 4. Make all kids
in America who turn 16 pay a rite of passage fee to drive
to those who run the drug testing industry. Coming.
- Phase 5. Make all Americans
under 40 be drug tested. Coming. (Robert
DuPont once wrote the article, Never
trust anybody under 40 [2]) http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/cbook/chap12.html
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International
The DFAF
works hand-in-hand with the Drug Prevention Network of the Americas
(DPNA) and Global Drug Prevention Network (GDPN) for world-wide
demand reduction. Stephanie Haynes representing Betty
Sembler's S.O.S. ™ when she signed the Amicus brief for
Pottawatomie County is now director of DPNA. Take a look at
some DFAF/DPNA sponsorships:
- On
April 26-29, 2001 DFAF and DPNA sponsored a conference
in Saint Petersburg, Florida (Sembler's hometown)
called the International
Task Force Development on Strategic Policy.
( http://www.gdpn.org/dpna/events/reports/taskforce.htm
)
- DFAF
cosponsored the Vancouver
conference on May 1-3, 2002.
( http://www.vancourier.com/052102/opinion/052102op1.html
)
- On
May 24, 2002 Mel Sembler hosted an international drug
policy summit
with the Italians at his ambassador's villa in
Rome. http://thestraights.com/news/archieve1.htm#rome-summit
- Last
year DFAF and DPNA sponsored a series of conferences
in South America ( http://www.gdpn.org/dpna/events/training/lima.htm
)
- September
12-14, 2002, Sound Drug Policies, Montevideo,
Uruguay
- September
20-21, 2002, Preventive Drug Education,
Medellín, Colombia
- September
26-27, 2002, Drug Prevention Education,
Mexico City, Mexico
- October
24-25, 2002, NGO Coalition Building, Santiago
de Chile, Chile
- October
28-30, 2002, Sound Drug Policies, Lima –
Peru
- November
13-14, 2002, Sound Drug Policies, Buenos
Aires – Argentina
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What is Ambassador Sembler, AO really
after? Mel Sembler is on Jeb Bush's Council of 100. That's the
shadow government in Florida that recommended and is now helping Jeb Bush
to privatize state government jobs. Mel Sembler has many management companies.
Will he bid on the management of these jobs newly turned over to the private
sector? Most people think that George Bush was Sembler's choice for president
in 1992. He wasn't. Sembler backed Lamar Alexander. When he was governor
of Tennessee Lamar Alexander supported and implemented the privatization
of state run prisons. Mel Sembler wants every 16 year-old in America drug
tested. His cronies would profit from that. But what is his plan if a
kid shows up positive for drugs? If it turns out the kid is just a user
will he be court ordered to a Sembler-based synanon for treatment? And
if a pusher would the kid end up in a private prison in which Sembler
holds stock?
References:
Footnotes:
[1] The St. Petersburg
Times, 7-31-88, p. 8D.
[2] DuPont, R.L. (1989c). Never trust anyone under 40: What employers
should know about drugs in the workplace. Policy Review, Spring
1989, 52-57
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