Subject: Drug War Casualties
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 percent 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.

Radley Balko is a writer living in Arlington, Va., and publisher of The Agitator.com.

Respond to the Writer

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Sunday, May 19, 2002

A few months ago, I wrote an article for FoxNews.com critical of the anti-drug "I helped..." ads being aired by the ONDCP. Shortly thereafter, I began getting emails from alumni of "Straight, Inc." and its spinoff chapters. The emails were pretty unsettling. They were from people who had been forced into the Straight line of drub rehab centers, had suffered some pretty unspeakable abuses, and who ten, fifteen and twenty years later were still obviously coming to grips with what they'd been through.

I did a little research, and began educating myself on the history and the particulars of the program. It's pretty scary. The abuses were very real. The tales are numerous. The victims abundant. And the players behind Straight now walk in some of this country's most potent circles of political power. One of Straight's backbone contributors and vociferous supporters is now our ambassador to Italy. Another was Bush 41's ambassador to Spain (despite speaking no Spanish and having no more than a high school diploma). Still others have fingerprints on virtually every major arm of the "drug war" arsenal, including DARE, the Drug Free America Foundation, and the Parnership for a Drug Free America.

I decided to do write an opinion piece on Straight, Inc. Barring any problems in the editing process, it will run this Thursday on FoxNews.com. I'm also shopping a longer treatment for a yet-to-be-determined print magazine. In conducting my research, I sent out a questionaire to a few Straight, Inc. survivor groups and asked for first-hand accounts of member experiences.

The responses I got knocked the wind out of me. That Straight progeny are still in operation after the dozens of lawsuits, exposes and settlements they've been forced to make speaks wonders about just how much we've been blinded by drug war rhetoric. That the founders of an organization that perpetuated mental, physical and sexual abuse on hundreds, perhaps thousands of kids -- can to this day say they are "proud" of what they've done, and that they can still be honored by our most powerful political figures is downright shameful.

Below are two firsthand accounts from Straight survivors. I have permission from both to publicly rehash their stories.

Your name?

Ginger Warbis, maiden name McNulty. Straight Staff insisted that my familiar name was an olddruggietie and that I be called Virginia. So former clients would know me as Virginia McNulty.

Your dates of affiliation with Straight, Inc., or one of its relative organizations.

My family got involved with The Seed in Ft. Lauderdale in the early `70's. I was around 6 or 7 years old then, I think. That was ongoing, between weekly open meetings followed by all-night coffee klatches at Dennys, daily trips to drop off/pick up newcomers and fosters living in our home, volunteer' work (making sandwiches of donated meat and bread) and my mother's recruiting and proselytizing, The Program pretty much dominated our lifestyle. Even when none of my siblings were actively involved, there were still the open meetings, volunteer work and recruiting as reminders.

Then I was a client in Straight, St. Pete./Sarasota from `80 - `82

How did you find come to be admitted to the program?

I had taken my dad's car out for a joy ride and gotten it stuck in the sand. My dad was talking about filing criminal charges against my friend. I couldn't let that happen, couldn't face the music either. You see, in our weird little culture, any kind of misbehavior or trouble that a teenaged kid might experience was automatically a sign of drug addiction.

I didn't want to go to The Seed, so I ran away from home, left a note taking responsibility for the car theft and hitchhiked to my sister's home in Massachusetts. After a couple of weeks, she finally turned me in. Rather than leave her holding the bag for aiding and abetting a delinquent (oh yeah, my mother would not have hesitated...) I went willingly.

A couple of days after I got back home, I woke up one morning and all the clothes had been removed from my room while I was sleeping. My brother and my father were there to make sure I didn't run. I could have, pretty easily, but just didn't know where to go, so I kept going along. The rest is a pretty typical intake story. Long interrogation, no chance to talk to my parents. The only thing not typical about my experience was that none of it was at all surprising; it was just exactly what I'd expected.

Please describe -- in as much detail with which you're comfortable -- your experiences in the program.

I never actively rebelled or resisted. I just sort of hunkered down and waited to either come of age, graduate or find an oportunity to run away. I did run a couple of times, but always got caught and brought back. On one of those occasions, I was 'marathoned' in the timeout room and 'restrained' on the floor.

A marathon is very like being tag-teamed, drill instructor style, by a continually rotating group of 3 or 4, sometimes more, group members and staff for endless hours. You never had any idea how long it would go on or how far it would go. Someone broke my nose in that room, but I don't remember who did it. I just kept refusing to confess to a drug problem, apologize to group for leaving or admit that I needed help or to cuss, yell or hit back. Every once in awhile, they'd trot you out in front of group so that all 100 or more could have a shot at screaming in your face, pushing, shoving and generally trying to get a violent reaction. There's no winning this game, but it's possible to not lose if you keep your wits about you and are lucky enough not to incur any serious permanent injury.

The rest of the time was just mind-numbing, boring, redundant pablum. You never got any down time, didn't dare confide in anyone because any friend you thought you had might turn, either sincerely or just to get by, at any time. During first phase, while no communication was allowed between parents and their children, the parents were heavily influenced to distrust their children. They were told that any complaint about the Program, indeed any mention of what went on during the day, was just an attempt to manipulate and driven by a depraved craving for drugs to avoid the awful 'truth' we had to face in 'treatment.' In other words, absolute solitude in the total absence of even a moment's privacy, even in one's own mind. If you read about life in the Soviet Union under Stalin, you'll get a pretty good idea of what it was like for us psychologically. It was like a little microcosm of the Gulag Archipelago.

While I was there, I really didn't think I was letting any of it get to me. But once in awhile, something would happen that I just couldn't 'unsee'. One such event had to do with a girl who'd split and brought back. Staff came out and stood her up for confrontation; that wasn't unusual. They made the same familiar indictments about what an awful, selfish, ungrateful whore she was and demanded confession, agreement and apology. What stood out this time was that, among the other indictments, they divulged that she'd gotten pregnant while she was out. Then they demanded to know how she felt about putting her parents through the pain and suffering of FORCING HER TO ABORT THE PREGNANCY!

I was shocked! I was rudely awakened, just for a moment, and remembered that my older sister, then 13 or 14 years old, had been pregnant when she came back from running away from home. My sister was a good Seedling and proud graduate and never talked about any of this mess, still won't to this day. But it suddenly dawned on me what had happened. I think a lot of other group members had a hard time with that too, because the confrontation was abruptly stopped, staff told Chris to sit down, called for a song, people started motivating and we all started singing those inane nursery songs, as usual. The whole episode quickly left our minds for the time being.

The other memorable event was another confrontation. This boy, maybe 14 or so, had split and been gone for a few weeks. When they found him, he'd been sleeping in an abandoned hotel. It had been cold out, overnight lows in the 30's or so and this kid looked like he hadn't eaten the whole time he was gone. They put him through at least 2 or 3 days of marathon, and it was particularly brutal. You could hear him screaming and the punches landing, his body slamming against the walls. And the group sang louder. I don't know why they singled some people out like this, but this time the marathon was a 24 hr a day ordeal. Bobby was not allowed to use a bathroom, so he soiled himself (and, of course, was cursed and demeaned for that) I don't know if they fed him or even gave him water.

But, on the 2nd or 3rd day when they trotted him out for group confrontation, he could barely stand and needed help walking. I didn't see that, I thought he was being defiant. He wouldn't look at anyone, just stared off at a point somewhere at the back of the room. So when they called on me to 'Tell Bobby what you think of his actions', I stood up and delivered my lines with all the passion and sincerity I could muster. Then they called on his big sister, Cathy. When she started speaking, Bobby's face lit up with interest. They were only standing about 15 feet apart, but he couldn't locate her face with his eyes. He wasn't being defiant, he couldn't confess, apologize or anything else. He was completely out of his mind. Not long after that, staff brought him out in front of group, explained that, (because of his drug problem, of course, and his refusal to deal with it) he was beyond the help of Straight, Inc. "Say bye-bye to Bobby, Group! He's going off to the loony bin." And we did, we all said "Bye-bye, Bobby. Luv ya!" like so many trained monkeys... then we did the singing thing again, returned to the rap and it was business as usual.

How did you get out of the program?

In Oct of `82, about 4 months before my 18th birthday, I split. Things had gotten weird, frightening and unbearable even by Program standards. But staff just got incredibly, unexplicably paranoid and brutal. Every day it was something else; fifth phasers were subject to strip searches. Days off were suspended, foster homes were shuffled at random, without notice. People were stood up, confronted for anything or nothing, set back phases, started over (the most demoralizing words you'd ever hear; "You're started over"), school 'privileges' taken away... I think it had to do with an ongoing investigation by HRS, but none of us knew about it at the time.

I was so close to the door by then, I was on fifth phase and on pre-training for staff, and just couldn't deal with the idea of losing that. So I planned an escape. I told my foster sisters/newcomers, schoolmates and bus driver about having permission to have lunch with my mother on a particular day. Even filled out the permission request, in triplicate, then never mentioned it to my mother or staff. Basically, I just got off the school bus and hitchhiked to my brother's home in Georgia.

A couple of days later, maybe a week or so, I woke up sometime after midnight with my mother and two other Straight mothers standing around my bed. They intended to just hustle me into the car and take me back to the Program. I didn't know at the time that there was a newly opened branch in Atlanta, which is probably where they would have taken me.

We called the police, who informed us that, in Georgia, 17 is the age of emancipation. So they made her and her friends leave. But it doesn't end there. A couple of weeks later, the day before I was to start at my first job, my father came to visit. He tried telling a cop that I was in a store with no money and tried to have be arrested. Once again, Stone Mountain police were not fooled. They found me walking on the side of the road, asked me where I was going and told my dad to leave me the hell alone. He did.

Then a couple of weeks later a couple of detectives showed up at the door with an arrest warrant. It seems that a Florida judge, partial to the Program, had had me EXTRADITED from Georgia for the 'crime' of being a runaway in Florida! After a few weeks in detention, they flew me back. When the plane landed, the HRS case worker who was supposed to take custody of me was late. But there were my mother and a couple of staff members ready to kidnap me from the airport. I refused to get off the plane without a security escort and waited about an hour in the customs room for the HRS rep. From there, I stayed at a group home called Fame Haven while waiting for court dates. Because of the frequent kidnapping attempts, not only on me but on anyone who tried to escape, I was essentially grounded to the property. I couldn't work or go to school or leave the property at all except on group outings (I think there was one the whole time)

Eventually, the court date came around and the judge agreed to let me return to Atlanta to spend the holidays with family. Outside the door, the HRS lawyer suggested that I might neglect to come back for any hearings. As far as I know, no more were scheduled.

After I turned 18, I tried living with my parents. But the first time I went to a party (literally, I'd never been to a party before and figured I'd paid the ticket, might as well see what it was like) I drank too much, fell asleep on the couch and didn't wake up till morning. So I go home to get my work uniform, and (naturally) I can't have it unless I agree to an intake interview at the LIFE program in Osprey. Unbelievable? Not to me at the time. So I go for the interview, I think it lasted about 2 hours. Finally my parents were brought into the room and gave me THE ultimatum; "Sign yourself in or walk out of here with the clothes on your back".

It was a no brainer. I stuck around Sarasota for a month or so before deciding to go back to Pompano. I didn't have much contact with my dad till he wised up a couple of months later and left my mother. Haven't really spoken with my mother since. Dad turned up back in Pompano, where we'd started, and we had a pretty good relationship till he passed on in `98.

Did the program at all help you with your substance abuse problems (if in fact you actually had one to begin with)?

Hahahahaha! Yeah, right? It's amazing that any of us are not hardened junkies by now. I was never much inclined to abuse drugs. But I can tell you that if I'd had the habit and contacts, that's exactly what I would have done. I had no friends, no family (till Dad turned up in Pompano), no idea what to do with myself. I wound up renting a room from a neighbor and working as a waitress, telemarketer or whatever odd job came along. I was completely unteathered, very suggestible and easily led. I sometimes curse my luck at having taken up with my oldest daughter's father, who's in prison till around 2006. But it's a good thin I didn't run into a pimp or heroin dealer instead.

It took me a couple of years to get on my feet. I'm now hapily married for going on 16 years, 3 kids (two at home, one just turned 18 and is living in Florida)

Any other general thoughts or comments you'd like to make?

Yes! Pay close attention to where the big players in the Straight Corporation are today! Betty and Melvin Sembler, Donald Ian MacDonald, Lee Dogoloff, Bobby DuPont, Dr. Leon Sellers. Look into programs using similar tactics. Talbott Recovery in Atlanta is basically Straight, Inc. for adult professionals. DARE is the Program Light for the little kiddies. Virtually every hard-line drug warrior with any kind of sway in public policy is directly or indirecly affiliated with the Program. These wacky bastards need to be exposed before they turn this country into another Gulag Archipelago.

Can I use your name in the article?

Sure.

Ginger's was probably the least disturbing of the accounts I got back. There are lots more like these (click here, here and here for three more). More forced abortions. More beatings, sexual assaults and suicide attempts. Yet desipte the lawsuits, testimonials and "cult-like" designations from mental health professionals, the people who've funded and supported the organization all these years continue to be honored and appointed to positions of power. In addition to the ambassadorships, Straight clinics were visited and praised by no less than Nancy Reagan, Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth. Straight founder Betty Sembler was honored for her anti-drug work by Jeb Bush in 2000 with a statewide "Betty Sember Day." Straight organizers were honored by Bush 41 in his "thousand points of light" program.

Stay tuned. More about Straight, Inc. in the coming week.

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