STATES TURN TO ALTERNATIVES IN DRUG WAR

Scores of laws and voter initiatives since 1996 have turned states away
from "get tough" drug policies that emphasize the penalties for drug
offenses, according to a report released Tuesday by an advocacy group.

States approved measures that stress treatment instead of incarceration,
restore voting rights and welfare benefits for offenders and allow the use
of marijuana for medical purposes. Overall, states were cobbling together
policies that treat addiction more like an illness than a crime, according
to the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports such an approach.

More than 150 laws have been passed and, increasingly, support has come
from both Democrats and Republicans, according to the report's authors and
state lawmakers who spoke in a teleconference Tuesday.

"There was a great deal of dissatisfaction with the way the war on drugs
has been pursued" from conservatives and liberals, said Washington state
Sen. Adam Kline, a Democrat who spoke about efforts to reduce recidivism in
his state.

Dissatisfied or not, many of the new anti-drug efforts also have been
driven by financial worries, as most states struggle with budget deficits.
A state prison inmate, on average, costs $30,000 a year, the report said,
citing federal studies.

The study found that voters in 17 states have approved drug-reform
initiatives, often to allow marijuana use for medical purposes, to provide
for treatment instead of incarceration for some drug offenses, or to ease
laws on seizing assets in drug cases.

Overall, 46 states passed laws to ease tough laws on drug violations,
including:

- -- Sentencing reforms in 18 states and the District of Columbia.

- -- Restoring some or all welfare eligibility to drug offenders in 29 states.

- -- Allowing marijuana use for medical needs in nine states and the District
of Columbia.

Besides budget pressures, there has been a recognition that prison
populations were rising too rapidly, and were affecting low-income people
and minorities disproportionately, said Connecticut state Rep. Michael
Lawlor, a Democrat.

Lawlor, a prosecutor, said he pushed for tougher laws for the first half of
his 18 years in the state legislature, but then changed direction as he saw
the results.