TESTING, TESTING, TESTING

Prop. 36 Drug Treatment Needs To Be Tested.

Voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36 last year, mandating
treatment instead of incarceration for low-level nonviolent drug offenders.
The measure provides $660 million for drug treatment over the next five
years, but it explicitly and mistakenly bars the use of any treatment money
for drug testing. SB223 by Sen. John Burton would correct that mistake. It
would appropriate $18 million to test drug offenders sentenced to treatment
under the measure.

At minimum, testing is necessary to determine whether public money is being
wasted. It is a crucial tool that officials need to assess which treatment
programs work best, or at all, for which kinds of addiction or offender.
Armed with testing results, individual drug offenders who sincerely want to
break their addictions can be steered into the most effective programs.

Under the provisions of Proposition 36, those who successfully complete
drug treatment can appeal to judges to have their convictions expunged from
their records. Probation officers, who must make recommendations to judges
on such appeals, complain they have no way of knowing which offenders have
succeeded in treatment if there is no testing.

There's not much time left. Beginning July 1, just 21/2 months from now,
Proposition 36 goes into full effect. By that date, judges must begin
sentencing minor drug offenders to probation and treatment. Only a handful
of counties have completed written implementation plans.

County officials are eager to take advantage of the opportunity Proposition
36 offers to fight the scourge of drug addiction in a different way. The
drug testing funds in SB223 would give them the tools they need to fight
effectively.