PROP. 36 NOT RETROACTIVE FOR STATE'S DRUG OFFENDERS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The voter-approved measure granting drug treatment
instead of jail time to minor drug offenders does not apply to narcotics
cases on appeal when the measure was enacted, the California Supreme Court
ruled Monday.

The 6-1 decision means dozens of drug offenders don't qualify for leniency
under Proposition 36. The case centered on offenders convicted before the
measure was enacted, but whose convictions were not final because they were
on appeal after July 1, 2001, when the measure became law.

"The act was not intended to apply retroactively to this subset of cases,"
Justice Marvin R. Baxter wrote.

In a lone dissent, Justice Janice Rogers Brown said the majority took an
"unnecessarily narrow assessment" of the electorate's intent when it adopted
the initiative in 2000. The initiative did not become law until the
following year to allow the courts time to prepare.

"Proposition 36 may reasonably be construed to extend to defendants whose
conviction for a nonviolent drug offense was not final as of July 1, 2001,"
Brown wrote.

It was the high court's second interpretation of the Substance Abuse and
Crime Prevention Act, which voters approved as a means of compassion - and
reducing pressure on crowded jails - for small-time drug offenders.

Last month, the high court ruled that trial judges cannot override the
language of the proposition by granting treatment to low-level drug
offenders who have recent criminal histories.

In the that June ruling, Baxter wrote that drug offenders who have committed
recent felonies or were in prison within five years of a narcotics arrest do
not qualify for leniency. The Supreme Court said any other policy violates
the initiative's plain language.

Proposition 36 allows people arrested for possessing drugs for personal use
to go to treatment instead of jail.