DRUG REHABILITATION PILOT PROGRAM SEES LITTLE SUCCESS

SANTA ANA, Calif. With Proposition 36 taking effect throughout the state,
some officials are viewing with concern an Orange County pilot program in
which 40 percent of defendants who received drug treatment failed to
complete the program.

More than 700 defendants have participated in what was intended as a
transition to the treatment programs that will be offered statewide to
thousands of drug offenders under the voter-approved initiative.

Roughly 300 participants did not complete the pilot program because they
stopped attending meetings, started using drugs again or were arrested on
new drug charges.

The data is the most extensive to date of how statewide drug treatment
might fare. The findings are leaving some judges and prosecutors
pessimistic that Proposition 36 will have widespread success.

"I just wonder if these people are going to be motivated to pursue a
treatment program," said Superior Court Judge Ronald Kreber.

Kreber and others point out that the 40 percent failure rate is far above
the 22 percent for Orange County's Drug Court, which has operated for
nearly a decade with stricter rules than Proposition 36.

Although the pilot program's results fell short of the Drug Court record,
they compare favorably with voluntary drug treatment centers. Nationally,
the success rate for drug addiction treatment is 40 percent to 60 percent,
according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a branch of the National
Institutes for Health.

The implementation of Proposition 36 this month is the biggest shift in the
state's criminal justice policy since voters passed the three-strikes
sentencing law in 1994. The measure calls for nonviolent offenders
convicted of possessing drugs for personal use to be placed on probation
and in treatment programs paid for by the state.

Proposition 36 supporters believe that as the program moves forward,
success rates gradually will rise.

"Right now we're probably pulling in the most highly addicted," said
Whitney Taylor of the Lindesmith Center, which favored Proposition 36 and
is working with 11 counties on drug treatment programs.

Orange County officials said they learned quickly that casual drug users
rarely entered the program.

"The biggest thing we saw was that a lot of people eligible for Proposition
36 were pretty heavily addicted and have been for many years," Kreber said.
"I didn't realize it would be so severe. I've dealt with individual cases
over the years, but when I suddenly saw it as a group, I said, 'Whoa."'