VOTERS MANDATE A RADICAL CHANGE IN STRATEGY

On Election Day, California voters grown weary of business as usual
in the war on drugs sent politicians an unmistakable message:
"Timeout. Let's rethink our strategy." A majority of voters -- more
than 60 percent -- approved Proposition 36, which requires judges to
sentence nonviolent first-time drug users to treatment rather than to
jail or prison.

Voter approval signals a remarkable turning point. Nearly every law
enforcement interest in California strongly opposed Proposition 36.
Police, prosecutors and judges issued dire warnings that the
initiative would lead to greater drug abuse. Gov. Davis opposed the
measure, as did Attorney General Bill Lockyer. The state's newspapers
were nearly unanimous in opposition. But voters roundly rejected
their counsel, voting overwhelmingly for treatment over incarceration.

Mindless "tough on crime" rhetoric was rejected; voters said they
want their government to be "smart on crime," not just punitive.

Many Proposition 36 opponents, including this page, strongly support
the need for more treatment but feared that by removing even the
threat of jail, the initiative would provide too few incentives for
drug users to succeed in treatment and too few tools for law
enforcement to control drug trafficking, particularly in vulnerable
poor neighborhoods. But now that Proposition 36 is the law, it is the
responsibility of state and county officials to make it work.

At the state level, Davis needs to beef up the Department of Alcohol
and Drug Programs, the agency that will dispense the $120 million
annually that Proposition 36 authorizes for drug treatment. In the
two years since he was elected governor, Davis had not even appointed
a director of the department -- an omission that speaks volumes about
government's wrong-headed and dangerous neglect of treatment.

At the county level, supervisors will need to provide more resources
and attention to the perennially underfunded and understaffed
probation departments.

Under the initiative, probation officers are charged with monitoring
the thousands of drug addicts who will now be sentenced to treatment
in the community instead of to jail or to prison. Treatment programs
must be monitored to ensure legitimacy. Thoughtful critics of
government drug policies have been clamoring for a shift in policies;
voters have now handed them a radical transformation. Success can
come only with coordinated efforts at every level -- a challenge
government cannot afford to fail.