LOCAL PROP. 36 EFFECTS TOO EARLY TO TELL

Cost To Treat Drug Offenders May Be Too Costly For Local Hospital Programs.

GLENDALE - While it may be too early to measure the effect of
Proposition 36 on area treatment centers, the legal challenges
surrounding the controversial ballot measure have already begun to
mount.

Approved by 61% of California voters in November, Proposition 36 gives
first- and second-time drug offenders convicted of possessing, using
or transporting drugs for personal use the chance to receive probation
and treatment rather than jail sentences.

But eligible offenders have been slow to seek help, according to a
Superior Court judge who chairs L.A. County's Proposition 36
implementation task force. "Countywide, we're not seeing the volume of
referrals that we anticipated," Judge Ana Maria Luna said Tuesday.
'Defendants are waiting to exercise all their pre-trial and trial options."

Approximately $120 million has been budgeted statewide for Proposition
36, including $31 million in L.A. County. There are about 70 treatment
programs that have existing contracts with the county, but more will
be needed to implement the program, Luna said.

But treating Proposition 36 offenders could be a losing proposition
for substance abuse programs run by Glendale Adventist Medical Center
and Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center.

"We're not contracted with the county and we're not going to pursue a
contract with the county, simply because the cost of providing the
kind of service we do is about four times what the county reimburses
for this," said Scott Robertson, program director for Glendale
Adventist's drug and alcohol service program.

Glendale Adventist charges about $8,000 for residential treatment and
one year of continuing care, Robertson said.

"This kind of treatment doesn't particularly make money for the
hospital," he said. "So the prospect of doing a county contract would
put us out of business."

George Patterson, clinical director of Glendale Memorial's Alpha
Recovery Center, an outpatient facility, said hospital administrators
are considering ways to fit the service into the hospital's budget.

"If we can help them, we want to be of service, but we have to find a
way that the service doesn't cost us more than the reimbursement,"
Patterson said. "We want to help recovering people, but we have to be
fiscally responsible to do this." Legal challenges over how the
initiative is enforced in court have helped to muddle the recovery
picture.

A state appeals court has agreed to hear arguments on whether drug
defendants convicted before the measure took effect July 1 can be
sentenced to drug treatment rather than time behind bars.
Additionally, prosecutors in Anaheim have filed seven appeals accusing
judges of authorizing drug treatment for defendants whose crimes they
say are not covered by the initiative.