KEY SENATOR EASES HARD-LINE DRUG STANCE

Senator James P. Jajuga, a former state trooper known for his
uncompromising get-tough attitude toward criminals, is reversing himself on
drug policy, saying he has become convinced that punitive laws emphasizing
incarceration are not working.

Jajuga, who ran for the Legislature because he thought the state was
"coddling criminals," will unveil a comprehensive drug policy bill this
session that stresses treatment for drug offenders.

Jajuga, co-chairman of the Legislature's Public Safety Committee, said he
is also reconsidering mandatory minimum sentences for drug dealers.

"I am Mr. Tough Guy," the Methuen Democrat said in response to a question
about his political image. "But I'd like to think that I'm growing and
learning.

It's an acknowledgment that we need to think out of the box."

The bill is likely to force a statewide debate of the way Massachusetts
fights illegal drug use. It comes just a few months after Jajuga and
leaders of the law enforcement community fought an initiative on the state
election ballot, known as Question 8, that called for using seized drug
money to pay for addiction treatment.

This week, Mary Fifield, a spokeswoman for Yes on 8, said she found
Jajuga's shift "very interesting."

"I'm heartened that a law enforcement officer who has a background in
criminal justice has arrived at a point where he thinks more treatment is
needed," Fifield said.

Jajuga, an ex-Marine who spent nearly 20 years chasing narcotics dealers as
a State Police investigator, said his thinking evolved after he reviewed a
spate of recent reports showing that drug use and prison populations have
continued to increase, and that the nation's foremost childhood education
program, DARE, has been deemed ineffective.

"I think it's time we got serious about this problem," Jajuga said in an
interview last week. "I really believe we haven't done that. We're all over
the place.

We've got to put politics aside.

"Illegal drug use now costs Massachusetts an estimated $2.7 billion a year
for everything from lost productivity to juvenile detention programs,
Jajuga said. He said he has no idea how much money would be required to
fund his new legislation because he is still finalizing the plan.

"I'm working on a comprehensive policy, some combination of a bill tied in
with our current efforts, which is going to really provide education,
provide a prevention strategy, appropriate intervention and provide
treatment," Jajuga said. "I'm going to put more on the front end than the
incarceration end."

Jajuga's shift appears to reflect a broader rethinking now under way in the
state on how to attack the problem of illegal drug use. Beginning in 1980,
when Governor Edward J. King declared that drug dealers were responsible
for "the death and destruction of our youngsters," Massachusetts began a
20-year movement toward stricter penalties and mandatory jail sentences for
drug crimes.

But backers of drug treatment say the get-tough approach has failed
dramatically, and the public appears at least partly sympathetic to that
view. Question 8 failed to win approval in November, but just barely, 52 to
48 percent.

This session, Senator Charles E. Shannon, another former police officer who
once opposed loosening restrictions on marijuana, is now one of several
sponsors of a law that would decriminalize the drug. The measure that
Shannon, a Winchester Democrat, and other lawmakers propose would make
possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana a civil offense punishable
with a $100 fine, similar to a parking ticket.

The state's district attorneys also recently signaled a willingness to
moderate their traditionally strong opposition to reducing the mandatory
minimum sentences for drug crimes.

A compromise on the issue could result in the passage of comprehensive
state sentencing guidelines, which have been stalled in the Legislature for
four years.

Though his move to overhaul state drug policy may be dramatic, Jajuga has
shown flexibility on similar issues in the past. Initially an opponent of
needle exchange programs, he embraced the idea a decade ago after studying
the issue and reading voraciously on the topic.

He said he now believes distributing clean syringes to intravenous-drug
users provides a "lifeline."

As part of the legislation he is drafting, Jajuga wants the state to
respond differently to those who deal drugs for a living and those who sell
to support their own habit and may need treatment more than punishment. If
someone is caught with a bag of heroin and it's their first offense, "we've
got to intervene," he said. "We can't [imprison them] and walk away. We're
actually enabling them. We've got to take greater ownership."

State mandatory sentencing laws now call for a year in prison for intending
to distribute even milligrams of cocaine, and Jajuga says that needs to be
reexamined.

"I'm putting everything on the table," said Jajuga, 54. "I want to find out
what works and what doesn't. I recognize some of this is going to be
controversial."