COURT HALTS NEW LAW ON DRUG TERMS

Judge Says Lawsuit By Prop. 36 Backers Is Likely To Succeed.

An Alameda County judge on Thursday blocked implementation of a new
law allowing judges to issue short-term jail sentences to drug
offenders who fail to complete court-ordered treatment programs.

Superior Court Judge Winifred Smith said opponents of the new law had
a "substantial likelihood of success" in the lawsuit they filed to
overturn the law enacted with the governor's signature on Senate Bill 1137.

"Plaintiffs have demonstrated that serious irreparable harm will
occur" without a temporary restraining order, the judge ruled.

Daniel Abrahamson, one of the attorneys challenging the new law,
called the order "one big step in striking down" the law.

"Jail sanctions will not be an option," he said. "If we find or hear
about any jail sanctions, we will be back in court immediately
seeking an order of contempt."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed SB 1137 into law on Wednesday. The
measure sought to rewrite the voter-approved initiative, Proposition
36, which requires treatment instead of jail for nonviolent drug offenders.

SB 1137 allowed judges to sentence drug offenders who relapse or fail
to attend treatment programs to two to five days in jail or up to 10
days in jail detoxification programs.

Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, wrote the bill in hopes of getting
more addicts into treatment. Currently, about three out of every four
offenders sentenced to treatment under Proposition 36 fail to show up
for their court-ordered programs or never complete them.

A task force of prosecutors, judges, public defenders and treatment
program providers backed the bill, saying short-term jail sentences
would prod recalcitrant drug offenders to either enter or return to treatment.

But Proposition 36's backers opposed jail sanctions and sued to block
the bill. The Drug Policy Alliance and the California Society of
Addiction Medicine claimed only the voters could make substantive
changes in the initiative.

Anticipating a legal challenge, Ducheny inserted language in the bill
putting the matter to a vote of the people if the court strikes down
the law, but Abrahamson on Thursday suggested that move will not hold
up in court.

In a statement issued Thursday, the governor's legal affairs
secretary, Andrea Lynn Hoch, said Schwarzenegger will defend the legislation.