Drug Treatment Center Closes

St. Petersburg Times, February 26, 1992

MIAMI - Straight Inc., a drug treatment program accused of abusive practices against clients, has closed its Columbia facility. The program opened six months ago and its closure ""was based primarily on the national economic recession," according to a letter sent to state officials Monday by Bernadine Braithwaite, Straight's national director. The letter said the program, based in St. Petersburg, will try to place clients elsewhere prior to its closure on Feb. 28. Straight continues to operate in the Tampa Bay area. The program, an adolescent outpatient program that emphasizes regimented peer pressure in its treatment, has come under fire in several states. In an interview at the Columbia center last week, Eugene J. Nieto, executive director of the center, said that negative publicity about the program was steering clients away.