CALIFORNIA FACES OVERWHELMING SHIFT IN DRUG POLICY

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California's sweeping new drug treatment initiative
will overwhelm county and state agencies at least initially, according to
those who are supposed to implement the law by July 1.

Voters approved Proposition 36 Tuesday by a margin of 60 percent to 40
percent. The measure requires treatment instead of incarceration for those
convicted of using or possessing drugs for the first or second time.

"There are going to be some implementation issues that are really wild,"
warned Butte County Chief Probation Officer Helen Harberts.

There is no room in existing treatment programs for the estimated 36,000
users currently sent to state prisons or local jails each year.

That leaves treatment providers, along with state and county governments,
scrambling to license new programs and expand current programs.

Those programs already often have 5,000 people waiting to get in, and many
may be ill-equipped to deal with the harder-core drug offenders who now go
to prison, suggests a Rand Corp. study.

Nor will the $120 million funneled into the program by the initiative each
year be enough to pay for drug tests, licensing new clinics or expanding
county probation offices that will suddenly be in the business of
monitoring thousands of offenders and their treatment, critics and the Rand
Corp. study say.

"This is going to be a real challenge for our friends in the treatment
community," acknowledged Dave Fratello, Proposition 36 campaign manager for
the California Campaign for New Drug Policies. "They are going to have the
eyes of the world turned toward them. They are going to be forced to prove
that treatment works on a very large scale."

Even supporters say Proposition 36 has flaws that could be fixed with
approval by two-thirds of the Legislature and Gov. Gray Davis.

"If we had a full year to ramp up and file off the rough corners, it would
be pretty helpful," said Bill Demers of Tehama County, president of the
Community Alcohol and Drug Program Administrators Association of
California. "If we can pass cleanup legislation that would address some of
the problems, I think we could be wildly successful."

Fratello said supporters are likely to block any attempt to delay or
significantly alter the law. But they may support attempts to find
additional money for drug testing that isn't included in Proposition 36.

Opponents say there also should be some punishment for offenders who skip
treatment or court sessions.

As it is, Proposition 36 bans the short jail stays used by the state's
existing system of drug courts.

Dale Gieringer, director of the Drug Policy Forum of California, envisions
a three-tier system evolving out of Proposition 36: a new class of
treatment programs for casual users; expanding existing drug courts for
addicts; and one to three years in prison for those who repeatedly fail
treatment programs.

However, its success largely depends on whether opponents now embrace a
proposition they once vilified as an attempt to decriminalize hard drugs.

County supervisors could spend their money on probation instead of
treatment programs. Prosecutors could decline to prosecute cases leading to
treatment instead of jail, or refuse to plea-bargain more serious offenses.

"There's going to be tremendous differences around the state in how this is
implemented," said Chuck Deutschman, who heads Contra Costa County's
treatment programs and preceded Demers as state association president.

"Officials in some counties have been calling this 'the doper initiative.'
Obviously if you're viewing it as the doper initiative, you're going to be
less interested, perhaps, in providing treatment."