VICTORY SENDS CLEAR MESSAGE ON TREATMENT FOR DRUG USE

The election had so many close races, but one was not close: California's
Proposition 36 won with 60.8 percent, a 2,000,000 vote victory.

The message of this victory of the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act
is that we need to fully fund treatment for people addicted to drugs,
rather than incarcerating them.

This is more than a message; it is a mandate if we consider that many among
those voting "no" were not those opposed to treatment, but rather those who
feared the loss of the effectiveness of the current drug treatment courts
in California, which have successfully diverted thousands of alcoholics and
chemically dependent people to healthy, recovering lives.

Elected officials should accept this strong mandate from the voters that
addiction is a public health issue.

As Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, said in an interview at the conclusion of his career as drug czar,
what we need in the war on drugs is a "comprehensive infrastructure for
treatment services."

It is time now to make the investment in this infrastructure, not only for
those addicted to drugs in the criminal justice system, but for those in
the welfare system, the public health system, the mental health system, the
workplace, and other institutions where alcohol and other drug problems are
so costly to individuals, families and taxpayers.