SAYING NO TO DRUG REFORM

Is Taft Thwarting Ohio Voters' Right To Decide?

If anyone can do it, they can. They're the Campaign for New Drug Policies,
a drug-law-reform outfit based in California. They're proposing an Ohio
ballot initiative for next November that would mandate first- and
second-time nonviolent drug offenders be sentenced to treatment rather than
prison. It would be a radical change in the Ohio criminal justice system,
one that Governor Bob Taft is already working to defeat.

But CNDP has an enviable record of success, and Gov. Taft's administration
certainly seems to have confidence in the campaign's abilities, to the
point of allegedly making illegal use of government time and money to block
their efforts, as documents unearthed by CNDP may imply. So far, CNDP is
winning the fight; a bevy of foot-soldiers will be dispatched in early
January to begin collecting signatures, which they'll continue to do into
the early summer.

It's far from easy to get an initiative on the ballot. There are a lot of
hoops to jump through, the most difficult involving the collection of
335,000 valid signatures from registered voters. And that requires serious
organization and a lot of dough. It's not clear how much that will cost,
but $1 million is a not unreasonable figure.

Still, unlike most grass-roots advocacy groups, CNDP has both resources and
experience. Funded by a triumvirate of big-money big shots - financial
wizard George Soros, insurance magnate Peter Lewis and businessman John
Sperling - they've spent over $10 million in pushing a dozen successful
ballot campaigns in Western states in the past few years. Their efforts
culminated with the easy passage, with 61 percent support, of Proposition
36 in California in 1999, which forms the model for the proposed Ohio
initiative. If it passes here, it will divert some 3,000 offenders annually
from prison to treatment, saving Ohio perhaps $60 million, according to
Dave Fratello, the campaign's West Coast frontman.

Fratello makes it clear that the treatment initiative, while covering all
drug offenses, is really geared towards those who are addicted to harder
drugs like heroin or cocaine, and who need medical help rather than a
prison term. Because diversion into treatment is voluntary, they expect
most pot smokers busted on minor marijuana charges in Ohio will elect to
accept the standard fines, probation and license suspension rather than opt
for a lengthy treatment program. This initiative would neither
decriminalize marijuana, nor legalize it for medicinal purposes. (See cover
story) [MAP archived at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n009/a01.html ]

Still, it's a start, one that Ohio voters seem more than ready to embrace.
The campaign did extensive polling prior to publicly launching the Ohio
initiative, and found 61 percent support. Even better, a follow-up joint
OSU/Columbus Dispatch poll in August found the "yes" vote jumping to 74
percent. "Our California success was no fluke," Fratello contends. "People
in Ohio realize the need for this. Voters are way ahead of politicians on
this issue everywhere in America, and we intend to prove that."
Symbolically, he adds, passing the measure in Ohio, which he describes as
"the heartland of America," will make that point indisputable.

But the Taft administration is not going to make it easy for them. Several
months ago, CNDP organizers grew suspicious that state agencies, in
particular the attorney general's office, seemed to be dragging their feet
over their proposal. They filed for all state documents relating to their
campaign under the Public Records Act, and the mountain of material they
received in return appeared to confirm the worst. The administration not
only opposes the ballot initiative, but seems to be actively thwarting
efforts to allow voters the chance to decide for themselves.

One document discussed several options for defeating the ballot initiative,
including one strategy to "stop CNDP Initiative from Appearing on Ballot."
Indeed, a memo from Luceille Fleming, the director of the Ohio Department
of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, baldly states that "the first and
best possible defense against the proposed Constitutional amendment is to
keep it off the ballot." Another option apparently being considered by the
Taft administration is an alternative amendment placed on the ballot that
would purport to do the same thing, but which, in fact, would be a
toothless, watered-down version of the original.

Meanwhile, the AG's office needed to approve the actual text that would
appear on the ballot. Ordinarily this takes about two weeks, but in this
case, more than two months went by without the AG's approval. Eventually,
says Ed Orlett, who's heading the Ohio campaign, they decided to file a
lawsuit against the state over the delay, but first they made sure the AG
heard about it. Suddenly, he was informed that AG Betty Montgomery had
signed the approval a week earlier. "Sure enough, the approval letter was
hand-carried to our office the next day." Then, when further state-related
delays ensued, Orlett put out the word he was going to file the lawsuit
after all. "Again, within a half-hour, the necessary faxes started rolling in."

Orlett, a well-connected former Ohio state legislator, knows "the biggest
challenge is to be able to proceed without interference," and he hopes to
ensure the state abandons its earlier shenanigans by keeping the pressure
on them. He says he'll soon file a request with State Auditor Jim Petro to
look into whether state offices have deployed public employees and
resources improperly, or possibly illegally, in opposing CNDP's efforts,
but admits he's "not too sanguine they'll rush out to investigate."