THE DRUG TEST

California has launched an experiment involving drug rehabilitation that,
if it achieves its desired results, could help other states make sensible
drug policies. In essence, it requires the judicial system to order
treatment for first- and second-time, nonviolent drug offenders rather than
jailing them.

Voters approved the diversion approach last year for an estimated 36,000
people convicted each year for using or possessing drugs. They will be
given counseling or time in a rehabilitation center. If they successfully
complete the treatment, their criminal record will be erased.

This is contrary to many states' drug policies in recent years, which
involved tough, often mandatory sentences. The result has been a costly and
rapid expansion in prison populations.

Common wisdom has told states that harsher penalties would deter drug use,
sales, manufacturing, transportation and smuggling. Perhaps it has done so,
though any significant effect on the amount of drugs in circulation in this
country is difficult to discern.

Others have suggested, to little effect, that most drug users need
rehabilitation, not jail. There haven't been enough resources available in
communities around the country to treat all the addicts. And the jail
option has appealed to politicians eager to be seen as tough on crime.

California is leaping in with something different. The only precedent is
Arizona, which has diverted about 6,000 drug offenders a year for four
years. California's effort to handle six times that many can be expected to
be expensive -- $120 million a year has been allocated -- and complex.

Officials in other states where drug cases have clogged the courts and drug
offenders have overcrowded the prison systems will be watching California
closely. The outcome is bound to have an impact -- one way or the other --
on how other states look at their drug-control programs.