HARD-CORE ADDICTS CLOG DRUG PROGRAMS

Large numbers of severe addicts are being arrested, treated under Prop. 36.

SACRAMENTO -- Many of the drug offenders being sent to treatment instead of
prison under a new state law suffer from severe addictions and need more
therapy than expected, which could put a strain on drug program and
probation budgets.

Less than three months after Proposition 36 took effect July 1, no
statewide statistics have been compiled.

But officials have been struck by the preponderance of hard-core addicts,
as opposed to casual users who happened to run afoul of the law.

"We thought we would get a lot more low-level substance-abuse cases," said
Bill Demers, president of a statewide association of county drug program
administrators. "We're getting more on the higher end."

"I think what it says is that there are a lot of people with drug and
alcohol problems out there."

Approved by 61% of voters last November, Prop. 36 allows nonviolent drug
offenders to get treatment instead of prison. It allocated $120 million a
year to be divided among the 58 counties.

Sacramento County's Prop. 36 plan assumed that seven of 10 offenders would
need the lowest level of outpatient treatment, consisting of three months
of therapy and as much as six months of follow-up, said Toni Moore, the
county's alcohol and drug administrator.

Instead, only a third have been assigned to this group, Moore said, while
two-thirds require a more extensive six months of treatment and up to six
months of after-care. The county uses standardized tests of addiction severity.

If the trend continues, it will translate into higher costs.

Sacramento County estimates that the more intensive treatment costs $1,300
more per person: $1,800, compared to $500. The county expects a few
thousand Prop. 36 offenders per year.

The offenders also have longer and more serious criminal histories than
expected, requiring more face-to-face meetings with probation officers and
more drug testing.

Sacramento's plan had anticipated only 10% of Prop. 36 offenders would need
the highest level of supervision. In fact, Moore said, it's more than half.

Sacramento's figures, some of the first in the state, also paint an overall
picture of Prop. 36 offenders. Almost a third suffer mental illnesses.
Two-thirds are not working, and a third require vocational training.

One explanation for the numbers could be that hard-core drug offenders who
show up in court over and over are the first ones being apprehended, said
Whitney Taylor, Prop. 36 director of the Lindesmith Center, one of the main
backers of the initiative. Once those repeat offenders are off the streets,
indexes such as severity of addiction could drop.

Still, the early indications suggest that the initiative is drawing from a
large population of serious addicts who before now have not had access to
treatment.

"Some of these people are telling me they're getting themselves arrested on
a needle violation so they can get treatment," said John McCarthy director
of the Bi-Valley Medical Clinic, which provides methadone treatment to
Prop. 36 clients. McCarthy is also a member of the county's Prop. 36
implementation committee.