MORE FUEL FOR DEBATE ON DRUG TREATMENT

Study Finds More Jobholders - And Repeat Offenders - Under Prop. 36.

The latest study on California's experiment giving repeat drug
offenders treatment instead of jail shows mixed results, ammunition
for critics and advocates alike to pan or laud the voter-approved law
known as Proposition 36.

People leaving treatment were twice as likely to have a job as those
entering rehabilitation, the report by UCLA researchers found. Yet,
slightly more people were arrested for drug crimes a year after
completing treatment than a control group of offenders who broke drug
laws before Proposition. 36.

The debate over Proposition 36 continues as a bill, SB 803, goes
before a key legislative panel - the Assembly Public Safety
Committee. The bill would lengthen treatment and add brief jail
sentences to the Proposition 36 system.

The UCLA report is the last annual study that will be released before
state funds for the law run out.

John Lovell, lobbyist for the California Narcotics Officers
Association, strongly opposes re-funding Proposition 36 as it is. He
said the completion rate - 34 percent of those who enter treatment -
is abysmally low. The report also found that roughly 25 percent of
offenders sentenced to treatment never show up, a figure Lovell said
is too high.

According to the report released Monday, slightly more than 100,000
people have entered treatment since the summer of 2001, when
Proposition 36 began to steer offenders arrested on drug use or
possession charges into rehabilitation. Since then, about 35,000
people have completed treatment.

Lovell favors drug court, a highly structured and supervised
rehabilitation program available in many counties, including
Sacramento. Those programs have a 55 percent completion rate, he said.

Others say that is not a fair comparison to make. Kathryn Jett,
director of California Alcohol and Drug Programs, said drug court
judges can screen participants and pick those most likely to succeed.

"We're very pleased with that 34 percent (completion rate); not the
number, but the people," she said. "We'd like to see that number increase."

Rather than compare Proposition 36 outcomes to drug court, Dr. Peter
Banys, past president of the California Society of Addiction
Medicine, said looking at pre-Proposition 36 days is most telling.

Since the law's passage, advocates say 10 times more people are going
to rehabilitation, and 37 percent fewer offenders are locked up in
prison on drug possession charges. Banys said people treated under
Proposition 36 fared as well as those in other drug treatment
programs in the state and nation.

"Treating addiction is not like taking out a gallstone," he said.
"Typically, people need several passes before they get effective recovery."

The report by the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs also
revealed that characteristics of those entering treatment are consistent.

About half are addicted to methamphetamine, about half were entering
drug treatment for the first time and just over half were staying in
treatment for 90 days.

Jett said about one-quarter of the people entering treatment had
jobs, and one year after completing, half were employed.

"People have gone from being tax users to being taxpayers. It's an
incredible turnaround, and those numbers are going to keep
increasing," she said.

Lovell, who is lobbying for the passage of SB 803, said he is
especially disturbed by one aspect in the report.

People who completed Proposition 36 programs, the report found, were
more prone to commit another crime than a control group of drug
offenders who broke drug laws before treatment was an option.

Two percent more people who were referred to Proposition 36 programs
committed felony drug and property crimes within a year of their
sentence than those in the control group.

Jett said that issue will be subject to further study.