DRUG REFORM INITIATIVES RECEIVE VOTER SUPPORT

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8 - Voters in the nation's most populous state approved a
radical shift in the war on drugs, saying drug abusers should be placed in
treatment programs instead of being sent to prison.

California's Proposition 36 will bar state courts from sentencing those
convicted of simple drug possession to prison, and instead will route
abusers of even the hardest drugs--such as heroin and cocaine--into
mandatory treatment. The measure could keep as many as 37,000 drug users a
year out of jail.

"There has not been law passed in this country in recent memory that will
reduce the number of incarcerated Americans as much as this one measure in
California," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Lindesmith
Center in New York, one of the country's leading drug-reform organizations.

The question on what to do about drug abuse was one of 200 initiatives and
propositions on the ballot Tuesday in 42 states. Voters showed a mixed mood
on a range of important national issues.

They embraced public education but seemed reluctant to expand gay rights.
They rallied behind tougher gun control but rejected physician-assisted
suicide. They backed the medical use of marijuana but defeated a call for
mandatory universal health care.

Perhaps the biggest loser was the school voucher movement. In California
and Michigan, initiatives proposing to give students public stipends to
attend private schools were crushed.

About 70 percent of voters in both states rejected the voucher initiatives,
which had sparked the most expensive ballot battles in the nation. In
California, spending reached $50 million. And nearly half of that came from
a Silicon Valley multimillionaire who led the campaign to get vouchers on
the ballot. Had it passed, the measure would have made all 6 million of the
state's students eligible for $4,000 stipends to attend private schools. It
also would have radically altered the nation's largest public education system.

But California Gov. Gray Davis (D) spent months attacking it in television
ads. Today, opponents of vouchers rejoiced at their overwhelming victories
at the polls here and in Michigan. Bob Chase, president of the National
Education Association, which represents more than 2 million teachers, said
the results should "put an end to the myth" that voters support school
voucher plans.

"The public has no enthusiasm for new voucher experiments," Chase said.
"Americans are unified in their support for investments in improving public
schools, where 90 percent of America's children attend."

Vouchers are a core part of Texas Gov. George W. Bush's education agenda
and a priority for many Republicans in Congress, who both say the idea
would help poor minority students in failing public schools. But one
prominent Republican in California, Ron Unz, said today they should
reconsider. "It really seems vouchers are just not popular," he said.
"Republicans should start taking this into account."

Unz was the political force behind another nationally important ballot
initiative in Arizona to end bilingual education. It passed with landslide
support, just as a similar proposal of his in California did two years ago.
Unz predicted that campaigns to end bilingual education and replace it with
intensive English immersion programs for immigrant students will continue
to spread across the country.

There was other good news for public education from Tuesday's votes. In
South Carolina, voters approved a state lottery expected to send $150
million a year directly to schools. In North Carolina, voters backed a
state record $3.1 billion in bonds for higher education. In California,
voters made it easier to raise local property taxes to fund schools.

Another closely watched issue on the ballot was gun control. In Colorado
and Oregon, initiatives to require background checks of all purchasers at
gun shows passed with ease, despite strong opposition from the National
Rifle Association.

In Colorado, the fight over the measure was particularly emotional because
of the massacre last year at Columbine High School in suburban Denver that
left 13 people dead. Some of the weapons used in that shooting were
purchased by a teenager who was not subject to any scrutiny. She later told
authorities that she would have not likely purchased the guns had she faced
background checks.

Gun control groups brought the measures directly to the ballot after the
legislatures in Colorado and Oregon narrowly failed to pass a similar
requirement for background checks. And this time, they even outspent the
NRA in making their case to voters. They also won the support of Arizona
Sen. John McCain (R). Gun control advocates called the passage of the two
measures in western states that have large numbers of hunters, sportsmen
and gun enthusiasts a tremendous boost to their cause nationally.

Jonathan Cowan, president of the group Americans for Gun Safety, called the
ballot victories "a clear message to policymakers across the country that
the debate on guns has changed dramatically."

On other social issues, such as extending gay rights, voters around the
country showed a more conservative mind-set. In Nevada and Nebraska, they
supported initiatives banning gay marriage, just as voters did in
California earlier this year. In Maine, a ballot measure that would have
provided a specific protection against discrimination for gays narrowly failed.

Also in Maine, voters rejected an initiative that would have made the state
the second in the nation (after Oregon) to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

One of the most symbolic measures appeared in Alabama, where voters agreed
to rewrite the state constitution to overturn a 1901 prohibition against
marriages between blacks and whites. The repeal of the interracial marriage
ban won with 60 percent of the vote, which was a far less resounding
victory than many had hoped for.

The law on the books barring interracial marriage in Alabama was
unenforceable and had been overruled by Supreme Court decisions, but it was
still contained in the Alabama Constitution.

And then there were the drug reform initiatives. A trio of multimillionaire
businessmen led by international financier George Soros spent more than $6
million to win approval of five of six measures they backed around the country.

In addition to the winning measure that requires treatment and not jail
time for drug possessors in California, the use of "medical marijuana" was
approved by voters in Nevada and Colorado, while measures to make it more
difficult for police to acquire and use the proceeds of drug-related
forfeitures passed in Oregon and Utah.

Another drug reform effort failed in Massachusetts, however. And an attempt
to completely legalize marijuana in Alaska failed by a large margin. That
measure was not part of the Soros package of legislation.

Whether the rest of nation follows California's lead in social policy is
unknown. But what is clear is that a tough-on-crime state, with the largest
per capita prison population in the world, has reached a turning point in
its approach to illegal drugs.

The measure, approved by some 60 percent of the electorate, is expected to
save the state as much as $150 million a year in incarceration costs, and
might even allow California to forgo building another $500 million prison
in the near future.

The treatment measure was opposed by prosecutors, prison guards and White
House drug czar Barry McCaffrey, who argued that taking away the threat of
jail time robbed addicts of an important incentive to clean up.

The wins for drug reform follow a consistent string of victories for Soros
and his partners--John Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix, and
auto insurer Peter Lewis. Since 1996, they have won drug reform measures in
nine states and the District.