re: Program Closes
I seven stepped from the Morgan Yaght Building and we all went over to see the new straight on Gandy once the program had moved over there. Most of us were not impressed. The staff and Miller Newton made it clear that this was "his" Straight Inc now. Helen Peterman and Dr. George Ross had a falling out with Newton and the way he was running things. They started a program in Nakomis Florida south of Sarasota called LIFE and I believe a few kids were pulled from straight to resume treatment there. I visited the program with a few Sarasota friends in '81 and it was small, clean, and they had plenty of fans to keep the place cool. They also had a pretty good kitchen. They also had a branch that opened up in Tallahassee that did not last very long. A few people I knew went on staff there. One guy got a staffer girl pregnant and then ran back home to his mama in St. Pete, the other guy got his staffer girlfriend pregnant and ended up marrying her. All ended up messed up on drugs pretty bad when it was over, only now they had become "Predator Druggies," by using what they had learned in the program to their advantage. As for what happened to LIFE after that, I guess someone from Sarasota/Naples would know cuz by that time I was working 12 hour shifts printing telephone books.
