CASH, POLLS SUPPORT DRUG TREATMENT But Prop. 36's Advantage Dips With a month remaining until the election, forces backing an initiative that would decriminalize drugs by prescribing treatment instead of prison for most nonviolent drug offenders have both the money and -- so far -- the votes in their corner. The California Campaign for New Drug Policies has raised nearly $3 million, more than 13 times the amount its chief opponent has collected. The most recent Field Poll numbers show Proposition 36 leading 55 percent to 27 percent, with 18 percent undecided. That is not as big an advantage as the proposition held in June, when the margin was 64 percent to 20 percent. ``The numbers are drifting down,'' said the Field Poll's Mark DiCamillo, who noted that historically about half the measures that start out ahead end up passing. DiCamillo said his organization probably will do a new poll on the issue next week. Largely financed by three wealthy men who have contributed more than $2.6 million of the $2.85 million supporters have raised, Proposition 36 would spend $120 million a year to provide treatment for most first-time drug offenders instead of sending them to jail or prison. Principal backers are George Soros, the multibillionaire financier from New York City; John Sperling of Phoenix, chairman of the University of Phoenix; and Peter Lewis of Cleveland, chairman of Progressive Insurance. In comparison, opponents have raised only $214,000, and $100,000 of that came from Alex Spanos, the multimillionaire contractor and owner of the San Diego Chargers. Most law enforcement agencies and judges find the proposition unacceptable because they say it takes away the one club they have to keep drug abusers on the straight and narrow -- the threat of prison. Middle class and poor neighborhoods would bear the brunt of the measure's impact, according to critics, because the treatment facilities for the estimated 37,000 addicts and alcoholics who will be diverted from jail probably would end up in those neighborhoods. =46or those reasons, groups including the Drug Free America Foundation Inc. and the state associations of narcotics officers, district attorneys and prison guards all oppose it. Most of the proposition's support has come from the medical community, including the California nurses, psychiatric and mental health associations and the San Francisco Medical Society. One of the most-recognized critics of the proposition and chairman of the ``No on 36'' campaign is Hollywood actor Martin Sheen, whose son Charles' difficulties with addictive substances have been frequently chronicled. The elder Sheen has labeled the proposition a ``Trojan horse.'' ``I've seen how devastating drug addiction can be,'' said Sheen. In a television commercial that will air in coming weeks, the popular star of the television drama ``West Wing'' tells viewers: ``Proposition 36 essentially decriminalizes hard drugs like heroin, crack cocaine . . . opening the door to fly-by-night treatment with no accountability.'' His high-profile opposition has drawn the wrath of the proposition's backers=2E ``It is difficult to understand how a man who has done so much good could be so wrong on an issue of this importance,'' responded Bill Zimmerman, campaign manager for the ``Yes on 36'' effort. What Sheen is doing, Zimmerman said, is helping deprive poor and middle-class people of a way to get drug treatment instead of jail time. But opponents want to give the fledgling drug court system in California more time to work. They claim it is a better solution because it provides for drug testing and leaves open the option of sending drug offenders back to jail or prison if they fail their treatment regimen. Contact Ed Pope at epope@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5641
No member comments available...
|