[KappaKittyCat]

Excellent point, Cream. We've criminalized diseases because our society cannot accept their societal roots.

It's safe to say that Noelle Bush has made some poor choices. If she was expelled from high school for her drug problems, it's also probably safe to say that the key choices, the ones that could have averted this entire situation, occurred a long time ago. The issue is that now she cannot disentangle herself from the web of addiction in which she is caught. The woman is ill.

It's my understanding that Miss Bush has violated the conditions of her rehab. In my opinion, it's time to ask whether she wants to get better. If she wants to get better, then she's going to have to go through some tough times, but I think that a continued rehab attempt is the answer. If she doesn't care whether she keeps doing drugs and is just sorry that she was caught, then I think that prison is in order. But that's just my outsider's view.

Alternative sentencing programs can work. The mother of one of my friends is a social worker employed by the state of Wisconsin. She (a DDD!) works with alternative sentencing programs for drug offenders. The programs work; those who go through the rehab have a much lower percentage of repeat offences. I am very much in favour of these programs. Drug addiction is a disease that creeps up on its victims. One or two bad choices can have massive repercussions years down the road, as Miss Bush is demonstrating right now.

Not to spark a huge racial debate, but... the program in Wisconsin of which I speak is only open to those who have not been convicted of violent crimes. They'll take possession, possesion with intent, dealing, even petty larceny. But anything like armed robbery, aggravated assault, or battery will disqualify an offender. The program is currently being blasted in the press because the percentage of minorities enrolled in the program is not proportionate to the percentage of minorities in Wisconsin's prisons. The problem is that if you're a minority in a Wisconsin prison, chances are good that you were convicted of some sort of violent offence. The proportion of minority nonviolent offenders in the prisons to minorities in the program are pretty close.

Also, to KSig RC, I was not suggesting that Jenna and Noelle Bush are at all in the same boat. Jenna is behaving like any college student. Noelle is ill. What they do have in common is the fact that both of them are public figures just by virtue of their parents' and grandparents' positions. They need to be aware that they are being watched carefully and that their actions reflect on their family.

My other question is this. Obviously Noelle's family is wealthy, so she can be sent to a ritzy private rehab clinic. How on earth did she get her hands on any drug, let alone crack, while in this facility? I mean, I can see swiping some Percoset or Valium, but crack? That's not the sort of thing that rehab clinics keep on hand.