MESSAGES ON DRUGS, VOUCHERS, GUNS

Voters confronted more than 200 state ballot initiatives on Tuesday. On at
least three controversial issues — drug laws, school vouchers and gun
control — they sent interesting and important messages to the rest of the
country.

In California, voters approved by a large margin a drug law reform measure
requiring mandatory drug treatment, instead of jail time, for offenders
convicted of simple drug possession. The measure will also provide $120
million a year for treatment programs. This vote underscores what appears
to be rising public dissatisfaction with drug sentencing policies, like New
York's harsh Rockefeller-era drug laws, that emphasize incarceration rather
than treatment, filling jails at great expense without curbing either drug
abuse or drug-related crime.

The California vote may persuade other states to reassess their approach to
the drug war. Meanwhile, Colorado and Nevada voters approved initiatives to
legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes, bringing to eight the
number of states that have decriminalized the medical use of marijuana.

The school voucher movement suffered a serious setback with the
overwhelming defeat of voucher initiatives in California and Michigan.
About 70 percent of voters in both states rejected measures that would have
provided publicly funded vouchers for students to attend private schools.
California would have given $4,000 vouchers to all students, while Michigan
would have provided $3,300 to students in failing schools. These results
should serve as a warning to voucher supporters, including Gov. George W.
Bush, that voters simply are not convinced that siphoning off public funds
for vouchers can improve education for all.

Tighter gun control measures succeeded in Oregon and Colorado, where voters
approved by comfortable margins initiatives requiring background checks of
all buyers at gun shows. A similar proposal remains blocked in Congress,
along with other sensible gun control legislation. But unlike most members
of Congress, the voters of Colorado and Oregon have experienced the
consequences of loosely regulated gun traffic at close range, most
dramatically in the devastating shootings at high schools in Littleton,
Colo., and Springfield, Ore. The success of these initiatives should
demonstrate to Congress that even voters in states with large numbers of
hunters and sportsmen want sensible gun control.