DAUNTING TASK: HOW TO SET UP TREATMENT FOR DRUG OFFENDERS

State Sen. John Burton said Tuesday he will convene a statewide task force
to oversee the implementation of Proposition 36, a voter-approved measure
that will divert thousands of drug offenders to treatment instead of jail or
prison.

One of the biggest issues facing the task force and state and county
judicial systems is how to provide enough probation officers to supervise
the estimated 36,000 additional first- and second-time offenders that the
initiative will send into treatment.

Other problems that the task force and a plethora of statewide organizations
have to tackle are whether the $120 million a year the initiative provides
for treatment will be enough and how to provide new money for drug testing,
since the proposition prohibits using any of the $120 million for that.

At the same time, a spokesman for the Santa Clara County Probation
Department said his agency already has begun meeting with other members of
the local justice system -- the district attorney, judges and the public
defender -- ``to hash out what this legislation means'' on the local level.

``There is no ready solution to how we close the gap between what the
proposition proposes and how we get there,'' said probation department
spokesman Rick Kitson. ``Our No. 1 priority is to maintain the efficacy of
the present drug-testing and supervision processes.''

In his release, Burton, D-San Francisco, noted that probation services have
suffered from years of neglect, yet the proposition relies ``heavily on
probation department monitoring'' to keep drug offenders from relapsing into
drug use.

While Burton did not indicate who might serve on the task force, Jim
Gonzalez, a spokesman for the measure's supporters, said they will ask him
to consider the CEO of a prominent drug treatment center and members of the
California Society of Addiction Medicine, as well as representatives of the
judiciary and law enforcement.

Backers of the successful drug-reform measure will attempt to address the
many issues at a daylong conference at the Sacramento Convention Center on
Dec. 18. Participants will include the California Medical Association,
California Society of Addiction Medicine and California Nurses Association.

Sixty-one percent of the state's voters approved the proposition on Nov. 7,
indicating that they want a different solution to the drug problem from the
one the state has emphasized for decades. During that time, the state has
conducted a prison-building boom to deal with drug-related crime.

The measure could save taxpayers up to $200 million a year within a few
years and stave off adding prison space at a cost of at least $450 million,
according to the state's legislative analyst.