Who's Funding Calvina Fay of Drug Free America Foundation?

[Up2Late]

Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation was on almost every NPR News show Yesterday, Frantically spreading her Fear, half-truths, and out right LIES.

She's definitely part of the RW Hate Machine and most likely, a shill for the Pharmaceutical Industry, anyone have anymore info about her or her organization?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Bingo.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Drug_Free_America_Foundation

[Up2Late]

5. Thanks for all this info everyone, this will help a lot, I encourage...

...everyone to send a short e-mail to NPR and, if they are taking e-mail yet the new PBS Ombudsmen, to complain about them having this woman on without having an equally hysterical voice from the Left.

You can read or listen (or watch) some of the the nutty things this woman said on the PBS Newshour below, and believe me, she almost never stops, unless the host cuts her off.

Here a little clip from (June 6, 2005 PBS Newshour):

GWEN IFILL: Let me ask Calvina Fay about that. We just heard Ethan Nadelmann say that the DEA is now capable of going in and busting individuals like Angel Raich who were taking this drug, marijuana, for pain relief. Do you think that that's going to happen?

CALVINA FAY: The DEA has always had the authority to enforce our federal drug laws. In reality, we do not have individuals who are sick and dying that are going to prison for using drugs. That's not at all what's happening. We've documented case after case after case of people out in California who are smoking marijuana who claim they're treating athlete's foot; they're treating migraine headaches, backaches; that's where the problem is. We have people abusing this right and left and using medicine as an excuse to do drugs.

Also, when people are arrested trafficking in drugs, that's their first defense. They claim that they are growing the drug for medical purposes. Where do you draw the line on what you call a medicine? People feel good when they smoke marijuana. That does not mean they're treating a medical condition. They feel good when they smoke crack cocaine too, but that doesn't make it a medicine. This is not at all about medicine. It's about the legalizations of a mind altering drug, scamming the American public. It's very interesting that the people that are advocates for marijuana as medicine are people who are also advocating that we legalize all drugs. It's not our medical groups out there saying we should legalize these drugs as a medicine. :crazy:

BTW, That "...crack cocaine..." line is one of her favorites, I can't even begin to tell you how many time she repeated that line on NPR's "Talk of the Nation," because I was screaming at the radio to shut her up about that crap.

If you want to hear her TOTN Ranting for yourself, it's at:
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4684123>
But she was on almost every other NPR show too over the last few days.

In my e-mail to NPR, I'm going to tell them that if they have people like that on in the future, the host must be mush more aggressive with those types of people, or better yet, don't have those types on, because they are pissing off their base.
:mad:

[bicentennial_baby]

2. Found this

Apparently her org used to be called "Straight Inc.", and there seems to be a good deal of controversy about it:

http://thestraights.com/index.htm

" The treatment modality popularized under that Straight trademark and sometimes called "Therapeutic Communities", is neither therapeutic nor conducive to community building. It was not invented by Art Barker, nor even by Chuck Dederich. It is an implementation of thought reform techniques borrowed from Korean POW camps. And this was well known to and carefully hidden from public view by the founders of that program. Under NO circumstances should any person be subjected to this kind of treatment, most especially not by force of law."

http://fornits.com/anonanon/

[notadmblnd]

3. Drug Free America Foundation formerly known as Straight INC.

Heres a little I found on them and the founders.

Straight, Inc. and its derivatives though we make no claim that all second-generation Straights are necessarily destructive or even cult-like. Straight, Inc. (now called Drug Free America Foundation, Inc. which no longer treats addicts, but is a major player in shaping domestic and international drug policy) was founded in 1976 in Saint Petersburg, Florida by Mel Sembler, the US ambassador to Italy, and his wife Betty. The Seed, a federally funded juvenile treatment program and Straight's immediate predecessor, was accused by the US Senate of using methods like those of North Korean brainwashing on America servicemen during the Korean War. The US Senate directed the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) which was then headed by Dr. Robert DuPont (the second US drug czar) to require Seed parents and clients to sign statements acknowledging they were participating in human experimentation. After he left NIDA Dr. DuPont became a paid consultant for Straight. In its day Straight was the world's biggest adolescent drug rehabilitation program, and also one of the most destructive. Straights were either closed by state authorities or voluntarily closed facing criminal investigations and civil suits almost everywhere they operated.

Straight claims to be based on Alcoholics Anonymous but in the beginning Straight bastardized the 12 steps into its own unique, 7 step program. Straight claims to be Toughlove®, but Phyllis York, the founder of Toughlove®, denounced Straight's brutal methods. Straight is a synanon or therapeutic community where addicts aid in their own recovery, but Straight was rejected by the Therapeutic Communities of America. Straight claims to use Rational Behavior Therapy (RBT). Indeed, Dr. Maxie Maultsby who invented RBT was on Straight's advisory board and many Straight pamphlets carried Dr. Maultsby's endorsement. But Dr. Maultsby stopped endorsing Straight after he learned of the abuse. In fact he agreed to be a panelist at the Saving Our Children from Drug Treatment Abuse conference in 2001 which was put together largely by survivors from Straight. The New Jersey Law Journal calls one second-generation Straight a cult and brands the Straight treatment method medical quackery. Noted cult expert Steve Hassan calls another second-generation Straight a, "destructive, mind-control cult." Dr. Bruce K. Alexander of Simon Fraser University calls Straight's methods "brainwashing." In July of 2003 Reverend Doctor V. Miller Newton, Straight's former national clinical director, settled with a former client for $6.5 million for abuse she sustained at his second-generation Straight. He is listed by a group that tracks abusive priests. The ACLU sued Straight for abusing children.

Florida’s Bureau of Criminal Justice Planning and Assistance found that many cases of child abuse at Straight had been substantiated; that though Straight received federal grants it had ‘disguised’ client fees as ‘donations’; that in its first 18 months of operation Straight had enrolled 450 youths but only one had been black; that Mel Sembler had violated federal conflict of interest regulations because federal grant money was to be used for "salaries only" but Straight had put the money in a single bank account along with other Straight funds at First Bank of Treasure Island. Worse still, Mel Sembler was on the bank's board of directors! A 1993 Florida state IG report on Straight concluded that Mel Sembler had probably interfered in a state attempt to close Straight for abusing children. In spite of all this Straight became the world's largest synanon. This was due in large part to an excellent advertising and marketing department which was buttressed by endorsements from prominent politicians who endorsed Straight in return for campaign contributions. Ambassador Sembler bought his way into politics. George Bush and Nancy Reagan were avid Straight supporters. Over forty former clients have committed suicide and we want to know why...... more

http://thestraights.com/introduction2.htm

[ElaineinIN]

4. Mostly governement grants

If you look at guidestar.org, the organizations 2003 Form 990 is online... shows close to $1.2 million in receipts for 2003, of which about $900k was government grants.

[paineinthearse]

6. Another reason to take back the house in '06

All appropriations bills originate in the House. If we control the Ways and Means Committee, the source of winger/fringe hate/propaganda groups lik this will dru up.