OFFICIALS GATHER TO CHANGE DRUG POLICIES

SACRAMENTO -- When California voters cast their ballots in November, they
overwhelmingly endorsed the idea of treating nonviolent drug users instead
of locking them up.

But they also left state and county officials with the monumental task of
revamping California's criminal-justice system and changing drug policies
that have been in place for decades.

And they have to accomplish all that by July.

Facing a common challenge, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and
drug-treatment experts from around California came together Monday to try
to craft some answers -- or at least agree on the questions.

Many of the 700 or so participants had opposed Proposition 36, which
requires that many "nonviolent" drug offenders be sentenced to probation
and drug treatment rather than jail or prison.

But now it's their job to carry out the will of the voters.

Initiative proponents urged judges, district attorneys and probation
officers to embrace change, saying the measure will only succeed if every
element of the justice system works together.

The measure will put roughly another 36,000 people a year into probation
and drug-treatment programs, on top of the 100,000 a year in those
programs. But the state's drug-treatment agencies already are overburdened,
as are county probation offices.

"Be creative," said U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles. "Turn this
system upside down and re-create it in a way that's going to get the job done."

The state's new drug czar, Kathryn Jett, said she is determined to make
Proposition 36 work.

"I am someone who is committed to see Prop. 36 implemented and be
successful," said Jett, the new director of the state Department of Alcohol
and Drug Programs.

Others said state and county officials will have to address numerous issues
over the next few months, including:

* How to divide up the $120 million a year the initiative allocates to
counties to beef up drug-treatment programs. The money could be split up
proportionally, based on each county's population, or by need, according to
the number of people convicted of drug violations, officials said. The
state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, which is distributing the
money, has not yet devised a formula.

* Who gets the money? Should the state hand the money out to counties,
which would oversee drug-treatment providers in each community, or to
drug-treatment programs directly? And should counties themselves have to
put up some matching funds?

Counties don't have any money to spend without taking it away from other
programs, Solano County Supervisor Barbara Kondylis said.

"Counties need to remain whole," she said.

* And to test or not to test. The initiative prohibits using any of the
$120 million a year to conduct random urine tests of those going through
drug-treatment programs to make sure they stay drug-free. Despite that,
some conference speakers said drug testing should remain an integral part
of any treatment program, while others said it's a waste of time and money.

In many cases, testing is unnecessary, because those failing drug-treatment
programs "are going to be obvious," said Superior Court Judge Jerome Nadler
of Santa Clara County. "They're not going to go to meetings. They're not
going to go to court."

But Ralph Miller, a Los Angeles County probation officer, said testing is
critical.

"People who are addicted are very good at disguising things. They could
fool the devil," Miller said.

The conference was organized by the Campaign for New Drug Policies, which
pushed for the initiative on behalf of its big-money sponsors, who included
New York financier George Soros and University of Phoenix founder John
Sperling.

The idea was to air all the issues and help state and local officials
brainstorm ideas on how to implement Proposition 36, campaign coordinator
Dave Fratello said.

"Everybody's betting against us," he said. "The post-election story has
been, 'This is impossible.' "

San Joaquin County officials attended the conference and are just beginning
to devise their own Proposition 36 strategy, County Administrator David
Baker said.

"We're taking a studied approach to it," he said. "I don't think we're
prepared to come to any imminent conclusions."