TREATMENT WORKS

Three Years On, Prop. 36's Alternative To Jail For Some Drug Offenders
Still Offers Positive Results

UCLA this week released its third performance report on Proposition 36, the
2000 initiative approved by 61 percent of California voters that provides
treatment rather than incarceration for qualifying non-violent drug
offenders. As some experts we talked with noted, the program has generated
a few surprises, most of them good ones.

The numbers first. UCLA, which does this study for the state annually as an
independent party (as called for in the initiative), reports that 103,519
people have entered treatment in the program's first three years. During
the third year 37,103 people entered treatment, the highest number yet.

Skeptics wondered whether there would be enough treatment programs to
handle the Prop. 36 caseload. But the state Department of Alcohol and Drug
Programs reports that more than 700 new drug treatment programs -- from
1,061 to 1,766 -- have been licensed since Prop. 36.

UCLA reports that 35,507 people have completed Prop. 36 treatment in the
first three years. That compares favorably with most drug treatment
programs, which expect a success rate of 30 percent to 35 percent.
Completing the program under Prop. 36 includes paying all fines and fees;
an unknown number of people have completed drug treatment but haven't paid
their fines.

Among those who have completed the Prop. 36 program, full-time employment
has nearly doubled. Among those who have completed the program there is a
71 percent decrease in drug use. Among those who participated but did not
complete the program, there is a 60 percent decrease in those who use drugs.

No treatment program is perfect, but in approving Prop. 36 voters said they
want fewer drug offenders in jail and at least some of them getting off
drugs. It looks as if the program is delivering.

What surprised some people, according to Dr. Peter Banys, past president of
the California Society of Addiction Medicine, is how many of the
participants are long-term drug users. ``We thought it would bring in
low-level offenders,'' he told us during a conference call, ``but a
surprising number are people who have used drugs for 15-20 years and have
been in and out of jail. To have 35 percent of these people completing the
program successfully is very gratifying -- and good for society.''

The country is in the midst of a wave of methamphetamine use just now and
the figures for California reflect this. The UCLA study shows that 53
percent of those entering the Prop. 36 program cite methamphetamine as
their primary drug of choice. Thus 19,000 meth users enter treatment every
year and 6,700 complete the program. That's 10 times as many meth users as
are reached by the state's drug court system. Their success rate is
actually a bit better than for cocaine or heroin.

We're not sure whether taxpayers should pay for drug treatment, but so long
as certain drugs remain illegal, treatment is more cost-effective than
prison -- about $3,000 a year compared to $30,000. Prop. 36 hasn't
delivered utopia, but its program is far better than sending non-violent
drug users to prison.