CASH, POLLS SUPPORT DRUG TREATMENT

But Prop. 36's Advantage Dips

With a month remaining until the election, forces backing an
initiative that would decriminalize drugs by prescribing treatment
instead of prison for most nonviolent drug offenders have both the
money and -- so far -- the votes in their corner.

The California Campaign for New Drug Policies has raised nearly $3
million, more than 13 times the amount its chief opponent has
collected. The most recent Field Poll numbers show Proposition 36
leading 55 percent to 27 percent, with 18 percent undecided.

That is not as big an advantage as the proposition held in June, when
the margin was 64 percent to 20 percent.

``The numbers are drifting down,'' said the Field Poll's Mark
DiCamillo, who noted that historically about half the measures that
start out ahead end up passing. DiCamillo said his organization
probably will do a new poll on the issue next week.

Largely financed by three wealthy men who have contributed more than
$2.6 million of the $2.85 million supporters have raised, Proposition
36 would spend $120 million a year to provide treatment for most
first-time drug offenders instead of sending them to jail or prison.

Principal backers are George Soros, the multibillionaire financier
from New York City; John Sperling of Phoenix, chairman of the
University of Phoenix; and Peter Lewis of Cleveland, chairman of
Progressive Insurance.

In comparison, opponents have raised only $214,000, and $100,000 of
that came from Alex Spanos, the multimillionaire contractor and owner
of the San Diego Chargers.

Most law enforcement agencies and judges find the proposition
unacceptable because they say it takes away the one club they have to
keep drug abusers on the straight and narrow -- the threat of prison.

Middle class and poor neighborhoods would bear the brunt of the
measure's impact, according to critics, because the treatment
facilities for the estimated 37,000 addicts and alcoholics who will be
diverted from jail probably would end up in those neighborhoods.

=46or those reasons, groups including the Drug Free America Foundation
Inc. and the state associations of narcotics officers, district
attorneys and prison guards all oppose it.

Most of the proposition's support has come from the medical community,
including the California nurses, psychiatric and mental health
associations and the San Francisco Medical Society.

One of the most-recognized critics of the proposition and chairman of
the ``No on 36'' campaign is Hollywood actor Martin Sheen, whose son
Charles' difficulties with addictive substances have been frequently
chronicled.

The elder Sheen has labeled the proposition a ``Trojan
horse.''

``I've seen how devastating drug addiction can be,'' said Sheen. In a
television commercial that will air in coming weeks, the popular star
of the television drama ``West Wing'' tells viewers: ``Proposition 36
essentially decriminalizes hard drugs like heroin, crack cocaine . . .
opening the door to fly-by-night treatment with no
accountability.''

His high-profile opposition has drawn the wrath of the proposition's
backers=2E

``It is difficult to understand how a man who has done so much good
could be so wrong on an issue of this importance,'' responded Bill
Zimmerman, campaign manager for the ``Yes on 36'' effort.

What Sheen is doing, Zimmerman said, is helping deprive poor and
middle-class people of a way to get drug treatment instead of jail
time.

But opponents want to give the fledgling drug court system in
California more time to work. They claim it is a better solution
because it provides for drug testing and leaves open the option of
sending drug offenders back to jail or prison if they fail their
treatment regimen.

Contact Ed Pope at epope@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5641