DRUG PROPOSAL DRAWS CRITICISM

A proposed state constitutional amendment that would require courts to
offer treatment to certain drug offenders has some state officials scrambling.

On Thursday, a representative from the Florida Office of Drug Control urged
members of a local substance abuse prevention group to join forces in
combating the proposal.

"We will be opening up the floodgates for the large use of drugs if this
passes," said Andy Benard, chief of strategic planning for the state
office. "This is a Trojan-horse effort to decriminalize drugs."

Benard was the guest speaker at a meeting of the Partners in Prevention of
Substance Abuse Coalition, composed of drug treatment providers and
officials from law enforcement, school boards, state agencies, the
University of Florida and social services agencies from Alachua County and
surrounding counties.

The treatment proposal is being floated by a group from California and is
supported financially by philanthropist George Soros. It would allow anyone
charged with or convicted of possessing or purchasing drugs to enter
treatment rather than prison.

The "right-to-treatment law," as it has been dubbed, would apply to first-
and second-time offenders who have no convictions for violent crimes in the
past five years.

In November, California voters passed a similar law, also backed by Soros.
That proposal required the state to spend $120 million a year for the
treatment efforts.

In an early response to the initiative, which has already gained roughly
20,000 of the nearly 500,000 signatures needed to be placed on the ballot
in November 2002, Office of Drug Control Director James McDonough voiced
his disapproval.

"This amendment will undermine successful treatment by removing any sense
of personal responsibility for the individual being treated, and will, in
effect, render moot the Florida drug court system by removing strong
incentives of the criminal justice system to stay the course to successful
completion, as there would be no penalties for failure," McDonough recently
wrote to Jim Pearce, chief executive officer of the Corner Drug Store.

In Alachua County, nonviolent drug offenders are already offered a similar
avenue for treatment through a nearly decade-old program known as Drug Court.

The program allows nonviolent drug offenders to escape conviction if they
successfully complete an intensive treatment program, including regular
drug testing, daily counseling and scheduled court hearings.

Alachua County Sheriff Steve Oelrich and other officials oppose the
proposed law, saying the law's supporters are pushing an image that the war
on drugs has failed, when in reality, progress is being made.

"It's a bad idea," Oelrich said. "The image that we're going to have to
fight is we have thousands of people languishing in our prison system
arrested for an ounce of marijuana when that's not the only charge. They
are usually charged with something else on top of the drug offense."

Under the California proposal, which began this year, legislative analysts
estimated the state would save $100 million to $150 million annually due to
lower costs for prison operations.

According to a report from the state's Legislative Analyst's Office,
"Assuming inmate population growth would have otherwise continued, the
state would also be able to delay the construction of additional prison
beds for a one-time avoidance of capital outlay costs of between $450
million and $550 million in the long term. Counties would probably
experience net savings of about $40 million annually due primarily to a
lower jail population."

According to a statement by Peter Banys, president of the California
Society of Addiction Medicine, Richard Polanco, majority leader of the
California state Senate, and Kay McVay, president of the California Nurses
Association, "Right now there are 19,300 people in California prisons for
this offense (drug possession). We're paying $24,000 per year for each of
them. When they get out, many will return to drugs and crime. Treatment
costs about $4,000, and while it doesn't help every drug user, it does
reduce future crime more effectively than prison."