(Not Too) Smart Colorado
Well, nice to see Diane Carlson from (Not Too) Smart Colorado still hasn't given up. Of course, with the money generated by drug testing, why would she? Before believing the load of garbage Diane has introduced in this piece, please do some of your own research. This load of garbage has about as much objectivity as the pro-fracking commercials run by the American Petroleum Institute. You see, "Smart" Colorado's administration and financial donors are rife with people who have a financial incentive to either get people in drug testing programs or to incarcerate them.
About 95% of "Smart" Colorado's financial donations have come from a Florida couple, Mel and Betty Sembler. The Semblers have been waging a war on marijuana for decades. This is the same Mel and Betty Sembler who were at the helm of Straight Inc., which operated drug abuse treatment centers, mostly for teenagers, from 1976 through 1993. Former clients of the rehab center recount episodes of brutal beatings, rape and systematic psychological abuse.
At one facility in Yorba Linda, California, state investigators found that STRAIGHT Inc. subjected children to "unusual punishment, infliction of pain, humiliation, intimidation, ridicule, coercion, threats, mental abuse, and interference with daily living functions such as eating, sleeping and toileting." Samantha Monroe, who was placed into a STRAIGHT Inc clinic in Tampa at age 13, says she was locked in a room, and forced to wear a clothes stained with urine, feces and menstrual blood, a punishment her counselors called "humble pants". Richard Bradbury, a former STRAIGHT patient and counselor-turned-whistleblower, told the St. Petersburg Times that Monroe's experiences weren't unique. "It was pure child abuse," Bradbury told reporters. "Torture."
In 1988, Fred Collins, an 18-year-old college student, paid a visit to his brother, who was in treatment for drug abuse, at an Orlando STRAIGHT Inc. clinic. Counselors accused Collins of being high on marijuana because his eyes were red, and held him against his will for months. The abduction, strip-searches and other abuses ended when Collins managed to escape. He was one of many to win judgments against the chain of drug rehab clinics before it was forced to close after investigations and lawsuits began to mount in several states.
Though the STRAIGHT drug rehab clinic no longer exist, the Sembler network of anti-drug nonprofits have proliferated, in part because of the family's extensive political connections. Mel, who served as a major fundraiser for George H.W., Jeb and George W. Bush, was appointed as the Ambassador to Italy in 2001. Betty Sembler, awarded "honorary agent status by the DEA," has led various anti-drug commissions and task forces on the state and federal level.
Three years after STRAIGHT shut down, the Semblers changed its name to the Drug Free America Foundation, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Drug Free America Foundation, a nonprofit that shares resources, an office and staff with the Save Our Society group financing the Amendment 64 opposition in Colorado, has a contract with the federal government to help small businesses develop their own drug-testing programs for employees. In 2010, taxpayers forked over $250,000 to a Sembler group to oversee a drug-free workplace program for the Small Business Administration. It also helps produce anti-marijuana literature and promotional campaigns.
So it should be clear to anyone with half a brain what the motives of organizations like "Smart" Colorado, Drug Free America Foundation, and Straight Inc., are. Their motives are financial, pure and simple. The only real concern people like Diane Carlson and Mel and Betty Sembler have for your kids is how much money they can make off of them in drug "treatment" facilities.
While no intelligent person would argue in favor of recreational teen marijuana use, it would cause far less harm to your children than people like the Semblers and Diane Carlson would. Protect our youth from evil profiteers like Diane Carlson and Mel and Betty Sembler, because they can do far more harm to our children than "the tsunami of marijuana" ever could.
About 95% of "Smart" Colorado's financial donations have come from a Florida couple, Mel and Betty Sembler. The Semblers have been waging a war on marijuana for decades. This is the same Mel and Betty Sembler who were at the helm of Straight Inc., which operated drug abuse treatment centers, mostly for teenagers, from 1976 through 1993. Former clients of the rehab center recount episodes of brutal beatings, rape and systematic psychological abuse.
At one facility in Yorba Linda, California, state investigators found that STRAIGHT Inc. subjected children to "unusual punishment, infliction of pain, humiliation, intimidation, ridicule, coercion, threats, mental abuse, and interference with daily living functions such as eating, sleeping and toileting." Samantha Monroe, who was placed into a STRAIGHT Inc clinic in Tampa at age 13, says she was locked in a room, and forced to wear a clothes stained with urine, feces and menstrual blood, a punishment her counselors called "humble pants". Richard Bradbury, a former STRAIGHT patient and counselor-turned-whistleblower, told the St. Petersburg Times that Monroe's experiences weren't unique. "It was pure child abuse," Bradbury told reporters. "Torture."
In 1988, Fred Collins, an 18-year-old college student, paid a visit to his brother, who was in treatment for drug abuse, at an Orlando STRAIGHT Inc. clinic. Counselors accused Collins of being high on marijuana because his eyes were red, and held him against his will for months. The abduction, strip-searches and other abuses ended when Collins managed to escape. He was one of many to win judgments against the chain of drug rehab clinics before it was forced to close after investigations and lawsuits began to mount in several states.
Though the STRAIGHT drug rehab clinic no longer exist, the Sembler network of anti-drug nonprofits have proliferated, in part because of the family's extensive political connections. Mel, who served as a major fundraiser for George H.W., Jeb and George W. Bush, was appointed as the Ambassador to Italy in 2001. Betty Sembler, awarded "honorary agent status by the DEA," has led various anti-drug commissions and task forces on the state and federal level.
Three years after STRAIGHT shut down, the Semblers changed its name to the Drug Free America Foundation, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida.
The Drug Free America Foundation, a nonprofit that shares resources, an office and staff with the Save Our Society group financing the Amendment 64 opposition in Colorado, has a contract with the federal government to help small businesses develop their own drug-testing programs for employees. In 2010, taxpayers forked over $250,000 to a Sembler group to oversee a drug-free workplace program for the Small Business Administration. It also helps produce anti-marijuana literature and promotional campaigns.
So it should be clear to anyone with half a brain what the motives of organizations like "Smart" Colorado, Drug Free America Foundation, and Straight Inc., are. Their motives are financial, pure and simple. The only real concern people like Diane Carlson and Mel and Betty Sembler have for your kids is how much money they can make off of them in drug "treatment" facilities.
While no intelligent person would argue in favor of recreational teen marijuana use, it would cause far less harm to your children than people like the Semblers and Diane Carlson would. Protect our youth from evil profiteers like Diane Carlson and Mel and Betty Sembler, because they can do far more harm to our children than "the tsunami of marijuana" ever could.
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