FLA. EYED AS 2002 BATTLEGROUND FOR DRUG REFORM LAWS

Calling the war on drugs an abject failure that wrongfully imprisons
small-time users more in need of medical care, a California drug-reform
group backed by three of the country's richest entrepreneurs is targeting
Florida as its next battleground.

The Campaign for New Drug Policies - which receives heavy support from
billionaire financier George Soros, insurance executive Peter Lewis and
for-profit university founder John Sperling - recently registered with the
Florida Secretary of State's office in Tallahassee in hopes of placing its
reform measure on the fall 2002 ballot as a voter-driven initiative.

Entitled the "Right to Treatment and Rehabilitation for Non-violent Drug
Offenders," the ballot measure would require courts to steer certain first-
and second-time drug-law violators into treatment and rehab programs. It's
modeled after California's Proposition 36, approved by voters last year.

Eligible offenders would come from the ranks of those charged with simple
possession or purchase of drugs or drug paraphernalia, whether it be
marijuana, heroin, cocaine or any other illegal substance. The ballot
language leaves pursuit of that option up to defendants but calls it "a
matter of right."

Those accused of selling, delivering or trafficking drugs, as well as
offenders facing accompanying charges of theft or violent crimes, drunken
driving and any felonies would be barred from the treatment alternative. So
would individuals convicted or imprisoned for violent crimes within five
years of their drug offense.

"The concept of drug addiction, when you look at it from almost any other
perspective besides that of politics, is that it's a sickness," said Sydney
Smith, a Miami defense attorney and chairman of the Florida reform effort.
"It's been driven in the last decade by dogma, not science."

Bill Zimmerman, the California political consultant who heads the Campaign
for New Drug Policies, estimated that 10,000 Floridians each year are put
behind bars who meet the criteria of the proposed law, a per capita rate
second in this country only to his home state.

"We can save the state a great deal of money and save the lives of numerous
drug offenders who would otherwise be stigmatized," he said. "People in
large numbers are rejecting the war on drugs."

The group's polling shows that a majority of Floridians support the
changes, Zimmerman and Smith said.

"We're not trying to create any political constituency," said Smith. "Our
position is most people already support this initiative."

In California, Proposition 36 passed despite opposition from "virtually the
entire political and media structure," Zimmerman said.

"We find the public has very strong feelings about this issue and doesn't
pay much attention to the political structure or admonishments from the
media on how to vote," he said. "I don't think we're going to have trouble
winning."

The proposal so far seems to have gone largely unnoticed around the state.

Leaders of the nationwide drug reform effort, including the Soros-backed
Lindesmith Center/Drug Policy Foundation in New York, are considering
similar efforts next year in Ohio and Michigan, said Zimmerman.