Courage Is Contagious, by John Kasich: on Drugs

Educate students that marijuana is a gateway drug

Jessica hates the drugs but not the abusers. Although she opposes any legalization of drugs, she thinks treatment, not jail, is the answer for most drug abusers. If people must be jailed, she thinks, they must receive treatment there.

She thinks more anti-drug education, starting at earlier ages, is needed in the schools. She warns students that marijuana is both addictive and a "gateway" to other drugs. She would like to see tougher laws against drunk driving. Based on her own life experience, she wants to see drug abuse treated more as a public health problem.

I have no doubt we will hear more of Jessica and her war on drugs.

Place babies of addicted mothers into foster homes

The problem was that the system was overwhelmed and children were staying weeks, months, even years in hospitals before homes were found. "Boarder babies," they were called. Keeping them in hospitals like that was called "warehousing."

The city was using the most expensive means possible to care for the children: a foster home would cost a fraction of what hospital care cost. The pressure of lawsuits resulted in out-of-court settlements in which city and state officials agreed to accelerate the placement of children in foster homes. Soon, the city had made dramatic progress in reducing the time taken to place children--down to an average of three days, even for "at-risk" babies.