DRUG-TREATMENT LAW DRAWS HUDDLE

Fresno County Officials Meet With Therapy Providers Over Prop. 36.

About 800 to 1,000 people a year in Fresno County will fall under
Proposition 36, a new law that requires drug treatment instead of jail time
for some drug offenders, county officials said Friday.

Those numbers are just rough estimates -- assumptions, really -- as county
officials gear up to start enforcing the law, which takes effect July 1.

"I don't think any of us feel really comfortable with the numbers yet,"
said Susan Thompson, a county administrative-support officer.

Fresno County officials gave the estimate Friday as they huddled with drug
counselors and program managers for the first time about the new law at a
meeting at Northwest Church in Fresno.

"We're trying to bring the treatment providers together way ahead of the
game," said Dennis Koch, a county senior substance-abuse specialist. "We're
hoping that you'll have questions that we haven't thought of."

Prop. 36 -- which will send first- and second-time drug offenders to
community treatment programs instead of prison or jail -- passed by a wide
margin in November.

The policies and guidelines of how the law will be implemented still are
being shaped. A county team made up of a broad group of agencies, from the
courts to the Human Services Department to the Public Defender's Office,
has been meeting regularly on the issue.

On Friday, the county officials invited treatment managers to join the
conversation.

Thompson outlined what team members know of the law:

They believe 800 to 1,000 people will be affected, but that estimate came
from looking at one year of case files with the Fresno County District
Attorney's Office.

The county has received $1.49 million from the state to start administering
and paying for drug treatment and will receive about $3 million a year
under the proposition.

Fresno County -- like many counties in California -- is looking for cues
from Arizona, which passed a similar law five years ago.

More than 50 drug counselors and program managers attended the meeting
Friday. Afterward, they said they were happy to get started and learn more
about the law.

"There's still a lot more that needs to be done, but it gets the ball
rolling," said Larry Arce, executive director of the Fresno Rescue Mission.

Audrey Riley, chief executive officer of Spirit of Women, a Fresno
drug-treatment program, said some county officials will have a steep
learning curve.

"There are a lot of naive people in this arena who haven't a clue on what
to do with addicted people," she said.

County officials said they're learning more every day.

"This meeting was as educational for us as the people out there," said
Garrick Byers, a senior defense lawyer with the Public Defender's Office.

Koch said many questions remain about how to handle the new law, but he's
hopeful about what it can do.

"It seems like every week that this proposition goes from being more
negative to more positive," he said.