FROM IDEA TO SYSTEM

Californians voted overwhelmingly last fall to send nonviolent drug
users to treatment instead of jail, beginning July 1, whether the
state was ready or not. As The Bee's special report on Proposition 36
showed this week, voters may have asked too much, too soon.

California enters the Proposition 36 era with an inadequate network
of drug treatment providers and a flimsy system for regulating them.
The initiative will divert 3,000 more drug offenders a month into a
drug treatment system that already has 5,000 users a month on waiting
lists.

Unlike the situation in most big states, counselors aren't required
to be licensed and treatment programs aren't previously required to
be certified. Even residential treatment, which the state licenses,
is assessed only for health or safety, and not whether they are
effective in helping patients wean themselves off drugs.

In short, Proposition 36 is probably headed for a rocky shakedown
cruise. Inevitably, there will be some foul-ups, scandals and a lot
of wasted money.

But elected officials, at both the state and local level, have a duty
to make the measure work. The 61 percent of the vote won last year by
Proposition 36 sent a signal across the nation that Californians are
weary of a drug war that has no end in sight. They want to try moving
from jailing the drug problem to curing it.

Like a lot of initiatives, Proposition 36 signaled voters' desire for
a policy shift without providing all the tools to make it happen. Now
policy-makers must fill in behind.

They need to license counselors and programs. They need to put in
performance standards for treatment programs as a way to be sure that
those receiving the extra $600 million the initiative puts into the
system are delivering services, not just collecting a check. They
need to supply money for drug testing so that drug users and programs
alike can be held accountable. And while they do, citizens will need
to be patient. It will take a lot of attention and time to make
California's rickety drug treatment system effective, efficient and
accountable.