RECORDS REVEAL DRUG ISSUE'S FOES IN TAFT ADMINISTRATION

Columbus -- State officials want to keep an initiative off the November
ballot that would allow first-time drug offenders to get treatment in lieu
of jail, proponents of the measure said yesterday.

Documents obtained by the Ohio Campaign for New Drug Policies indicate that
Luceille Fleming, director of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug
Addiction Services, is leading the charge.

"The first line and best possible defense against the proposed
constitutional amendment is to keep it off the ballot," Fleming wrote to
Greg Moody, Gov. Bob Taft's executive assistant for Health and Human
Services, in a Sept. 13 memo.

Ed Orlett, the ballot initiative's campaign manager, said the state is
plotting to block the measure and hopes to confuse and scare voters.

"They are trying to violate the rights of Ohioans by denying them access to
amending the Constitution by petition," Orlett said. "And they are doing it
at taxpayer's expense."

Other records show that the state has developed a "playbook" to fight the
issue. One suggestion included development of a separate ballot measure by
state officials to trump the issue sponsored by the Campaign for New Drug
Policies, raising some concern over how to proceed if voters approved both
measures.

In a Nov. 7 meeting involving First Lady Hope Taft and some of the
governor's staff, officials discussed consulting with Taft's chief legal
counsel about how far they could go in opposing the issue, according to
records.

Stacey Frohnapfel, a spokeswoman for Fleming, referred questions to Taft's
spokesman Joe Andrews.

"I'm not sure there is an active effort to keep it off the ballot," Andrews
said. "The governor has asked every interested entity to look into it to
see where it stands and how it will affect Ohio."

Andrews said Taft's legal counsel has cleared discussions because they
involve an investigation, "as opposed to a campaign against it."

State officials are concerned that mandating treatment for offenders could
displace nonoffenders who are receiving drug treatment, Andrews said.

Attorney General Betty Montgomery tentatively approved summary language for
the ballot measure yesterday, pending verification of 100 sample signatures.

Proponents must gather 335,000 signatures for the issue to reach the
November ballot.

If approved by voters, first- and second-time drug offenders would receive
treatment instead of jail time if there were no convictions for drug sales
or violent crimes.