Aduja shares struggles
as Senate OKs drug billThe measure calls for $13 million
more to fight drug addiction
As the Legislature readies its anti-drug bill, Sen. Melodie Aduja put a human face on the problems of drug addiction yesterday as she recounted the struggles of her own family.
Aduja's ex-husband, William Lee Williams, was arrested earlier this month in a Chinatown drug raid.
"I have lived through the shame and humiliation of knowing that someone I loved and trusted with the lives of my children has betrayed us and our trust with the selfish seduction of chasing the next relapse," said Aduja (D, Kahuku-Kaneohe).
"My own family has been torn apart by my former husband's problems with illegal drugs. I and my two small children lived in a world of lies, abandonment and betrayal that the drug addict creates to hide their addiction," she said.
Investigators with the state Campaign Spending Commission have written to Aduja, asking her to produce receipts for some $32,000 in petty cash withdrawals that her former husband made while he was married to her and helping in her 2002 campaign.
The drug bill that Democrats hope will be the centerpiece in their fall re-election campaign passed the Senate yesterday and is expected to clear the House today.
The bill calls for $13 million in extra state funding to combat drug addiction. The biggest allotment, $4 million, will go for adult treatment services. Another $3 million is to go to school-based treatment and anti-drug programs, and $2 million goes to substance abuse prevention.
A controversial requirement that employers offer substance abuse prevention education programs to all employees was dropped from the final version of the bill.