DRUG WAR WEARY

Voters Mandate Radical Change In Drug Strategy.

On Election Day, California voters grown weary of business as usual in the
war on drugs sent politicians an unmistakable message: "Time out. Let's
rethink our strategy." A huge majority of voters -- more than 60% --
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. Gray 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 newspaper,
strongly supported 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 wrongheaded, dangerous and cruel neglect of
treatment.

County supervisors will need to provide more resources and attention to
perennially underfunded and understaffed probation departments. Under the
initiative, probation officers are charged with monitoring the thousands of
addicts who will now be sentenced to treatment in the community instead of
jail or 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.