DRUG WAR FOCUS SHIFTS

Maleng Urges More Treatment, Less Jail Time For Offenders

OLYMPIA King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng declared victory over
drug-driven violence yesterday, then asked state lawmakers to reduce prison
time for dope dealers and use the money saved to increase drug treatment
programs tied to drug courts.

Since the passage in 1989 of a tough state law responding to drug gang
wars, "we've protected neighborhoods; we held the perimeter; the crime rate
has gone down," Maleng asserted in testimony before the House Criminal
Justice and Corrections Committee.

Nevertheless, Maleng's office last year filed a record number of felony
drug charges.

It is that kind of statistic that has led Maleng and other tough-minded
police and prosecutors around the nation to the realization that punishment
alone cannot suppress illegal drug use. So Maleng, with backing from many
organizations representing judges and prosecutors, is now promoting a more
"balanced" approach that includes treatment.

But local critics of America's war on drugs dismissed Maleng's proposal as
flawed, saying it does not go far enough in supporting treatment as the
only effective strategy to reduce the toll of addiction.

Seattle attorney Dan Merkle, who was in the audience but did not testify
yesterday, said the proposed legislation fails to ensure uniform access to
treatment around the state, adequately fund treatment programs or stop
harsh sentences for people convicted of simple possession. But he and other
critics nodded in agreement when Maleng told lawmakers that "We have
invested nothing in treatment, and today the system is out of balance."

"Drug treatment works," Maleng told lawmakers.

But the proposal's major premise that "the criminal justice system should
use its coercive authority to force offenders into treatment" does raise
subtle red flags. Merkle said he thinks social workers and counselors,
rather than judges and prosecutors, should control treatment. He called
Maleng's proposal an attempt by drug war veterans to stay in the driver's
seat of drug control policy.

The proposal "is to maintain and increase the control of law enforcement
over the drug war," said Merkle, who contends that social service agencies
should design, control and deliver treatment programs.

The reform package being pushed by Maleng, SB 5419 and HB 2003, would
dramatically reduce prison time for drug dealers. For example, a first
conviction for selling heroin or cocaine which now brings 21 to 27 months
in prison would net 15 to 20 months. The state's savings grow as prison
populations fall, reaching $31.1 million in the third biennium budget after
the law goes into effect. Money saved would fund treatment programs.

About 22 percent of all Washington's nearly 15,000 prison inmates are
serving time for drug crimes, comparable to the national average for state
prisons.

Maleng said he hopes his proposal will head off an initiative similar to
the one that passed in California last fall. Beginning this summer,
California offenders convicted for the first or second time for possession
will be diverted to treatment instead of prison.

Maleng is likely to be disappointed, Merkle said. He and other advocates of
drug law reform, including Rob Killian, the Seattle physician who organized
a 1998 initiative that legalized the use of medical marijuana, are
considering a ballot measure of their own.

When Killian was asked if he had lined up monetary support for the measure,
he said: "There are lots of people interested in seeing an initiative like
this funded."

Billionaire George Soros, who also financed medical marijuana initiatives
in Washington in 1997 and 1998, backed the California initiative.

Maleng warned lawmakers that even "if this bill goes through, there could
still be an initiative. We need to seize the initiative."

There's every indication that Maleng has a lot of heavyweight support in
doing so. Among those joining him to back the proposal at yesterday's
hearing before the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee were
state Corrections Secretary Joseph Lehman, Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ
Hauge and King County Superior Court Presiding Judge Brian Gain.

Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park, is a sponsor of a similar House bill
that would reduce the sentence for dealing drugs and set up a dedicated
account funded with the savings to pay for treatment of non-violent drug
possession offenders and for drug courts.

She opened the testimony by hitting the old assumption that "punishment
will deter addiction. Our past experiences show punishment doesn't cure
disease." Under the current criminal justice framework, we have clogged
courts and crowded prisons, she said. "We need to get smarter about how we
handle drug issues. Treatment works to decrease crime."

Committee member Ida Ballasiotes, R-Mercer Island, spoke as though passage
of some form of legislation responsive to Maleng's proposal is inevitable.
The question is whether it will go far enough to dissuade people like
Merkle and Killian from bringing to Washington the reform juggernaut that
60 percent of California voters supported last fall.