FORGING AN UNEASY TRUCE IN A MADDENING DRUG WAR

BY EMBRACING Proposition 36 on Tuesday, California voters have called for a
cease-fire in the protracted war on drugs that, despite its high casualty
rate, has produced marginal and questionable results.

Understandably, the public has grown weary of a conflict that has consumed
30 years and billions of tax dollars in a street crusade no more alluring
or winnable than the ill-conceived military mission that bogged down in
Vietnam.

But to be sure, the initiative, requiring treatment instead of
incarceration for first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders, is
riddled with problems. Not the least of which is that the measure neither
mandates drug testing nor provides money for such, leaving no way to know
whether those supposedly getting help are truly staying on track.

It also fails to stipulate standards for treatment programs or provide
adequate incentives for addicts to stay in them once they become enrolled.
And of course, there is perhaps legitimate fear that the measure is but the
first of several well-calculated steps toward decriminalizing heroin, crack
cocaine, PCP and other dangerous recreational drugs.

Yet, despite its considerable shortcomings, Prop. 36 hardly represents
absolute, unfettered surrender. With more than half of the nation's 2
million prisoners serving time for drug-related offenses

- --including 19,700 locked up in California solely for simple drug
possession -- it's difficult to argue against attempts at something new.

At minimum, because treatment is less costly than imprisonment, it is
estimated that Prop. 36 will save the state $1 billion in five years by
shifting emphasis from punishment to programs.

Drug addiction is a hideous disease, ruining users, wrecking their
families, utterly destroying neighborhoods. Prop. 36 is no quick fix and
will not be easily deployable for local jurisdictions that must now discard
old systems in favor of an uncertain new.

But, rightly skeptical or not, it is time for law enforcement and city
agencies to adhere to the will of the people by sparing no effort to make
this new policy work.