TWO NEW DRUG WAR FRONTS: TREATMENT AND PREVENTION

Paul Seave, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, took time
off from prosecuting bad guys the other day to host breakfast meetings for
business and community leaders and some media representatives. He wanted to
talk about the methamphetamine crisis in Sacramento.

I was intrigued by Seave's invitation, partly because it lacked the federal
prosecutor's usual sober, lawyer-like tones. "Methamphetamine has hit
Sacramento like a freight train," he began. "We have the highest rate of
methamphetamine-related emergency room admissions in California."

At breakfast, Seave claimed great success at prosecuting criminals who sell
the chemical feedstock that goes into producing meth -- ephedrine and
pseudoephedrine. He said it's been so successful that feedstock prices have
increased 500 percent. He said the purity of the street drug has fallen.

And he also said, "So what?"

Like a lot of thoughtful people who've watched or participated in the
nation's war on drugs, Seave is frustrated. He's convinced law enforcement
alone can't fix the problem. A Clinton appointee, Seave has little time
left in his post and wants to use it to launch a drug prevention program in
Sacramento that goes beyond law enforcement to include treatment and education.

Much as I applaud the impulse, it struck me that Seave's efforts may come
too late and do too little. Others are moving faster and further. As far as
drugs are concerned, the political landscape is shifting under us.

In 1996, California voters overwhelmingly approved legalizing pot use for
medicinal purposes, a law that the federal government (the same folks who
give Seave his marching orders) is attempting to quash. While state and
federal lawyers skirmish over that, backers of the Substance Abuse and
Crime Prevention Act are collecting signatures to qualify another drug
initiative for California's November ballot.

That measure seeks to divert drug addicts from prison into treatment. Under
its provisions, people found guilty of sale, production or manufacture of
illegal drugs would still face incarceration, but nonviolent substance
abusers convicted of simple possession would instead receive treatment and
probation. It would also authorize dismissal of charges for probationers
who successfully complete treatment and would appropriate $120 million
annually for drug treatment programs.

The drug initiative has already won endorsements from 14 state legislators,
including Sens. John Burton, John Vasconcellos and Richard Polanco and
Assemblyman Rod Wright; and Sacramento City Councilman Dave Jones. All are
left-leaning Democrats and therefore politically suspect among the most
rabid drug warriors and their political allies.

But the initiative has also been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell,
Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from California. In speeches,
Campbell indicates a willingness to go even further, perhaps experimenting
with allowing addicts to shoot up in clinical settings, as has been tried
in Europe.

Predictably, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association -- the
prison guards union -- is opposed. After all, CCPOA has been a big
unintended beneficiary of the drug war. As state prison populations have
swelled as a result of draconian mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws, so
have prison budgets and prison guard union membership -- and prison guard
pay, union dues and political clout. The union has used its heft to
influence legislative and gubernatorial races. It spent $1 million to help
elect Republican Gov. Pete Wilson in 1994 and $2 million to help elect
Democrat Gov. Gray Davis in 1998.

Seave says that his plan for a local drug abuse prevention coalition was
hatched months ago and that he was only vaguely aware of the Substance
Abuse and Crime Prevention initiative when he hosted his breakfast
briefing. So it's probably just a coincidence, but still worth noting, that
to help him with his prevention effort Seave has tapped Ray McNally Temple
Associates, a political consulting firm CCPOA also uses. McNally Temple is
also the firm hired by Californians United Against Drug Abuse, the
coalition -- which includes the prison guards union -- that has been formed
to help defeat the treatment-over-prison ballot initiative,

Drug addiction is not a victimless crime. Anyone who's been to a home where
addiction is rife -- whether legal alcohol or illegal cocaine, crack,
heroin and meth -- has seen its devastation. In our community, addiction is
at the heart of most cases of child abuse and neglect, of poverty and
violence, of wasted potential and lives.

But the imbecilic war on drugs, waged disproportionately in poor minority
communities, has had a hideous effect as well. In a report released this
month, "Punishment and Prejudice," Human Rights Watch documented that even
though there are five times more white drug users than blacks relative to
population, black men are admitted to state prison on drug charges at a
rate more than 13 times greater than white men. The drug war has sent poor
black men to prison in alarming numbers, and now threatens the same for
their wives, sisters and mothers. Whole generations of African American
children have been effectively orphaned by laws that imprison their
hopelessly addicted mothers and fathers.

Now Seave wants to expand treatment and prevention. He's sponsoring a
summit in October, seeking to form a coalition between community leaders
and law enforcement to combat drug abuse. Meanwhile, the backers of the
Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act plan are bypassing community
leaders and law enforcement. They go before voters in November with their
own plan.

Ginger Rutland is an associate editor of The Bee. She can be reached at
(916) 321-1917 or at grutland@sacbee.com.