CONNECT CRIME, PUNISHMENT

Suspending drivers' licenses for unrelated drug offenses - especially minor
ones - is a practice that should not be revived in California.

Gov. Gray Davis, with support from Assemblyman Dean Florez, D-Shafter,
among others, is attempting to revive the decade-old practice that
sunsetted last year, partly for lack of widespread support other than from
the federal government.

The proposal has no effect on existing laws relating to impaired driving.
It would, instead, call for a six-month suspension of a driver's license
for any substance abuse - or a year for those under age 21 - whether it
involved driving or not.

That is one of the problems with the concept: The punishment may not have a
connection with the crime.

Another problem is proportionality. The suspension is the same whether the
offense is trivial - even plausibly legal under the medical marijuana law
that is at least temporarily in effect in California - or for serious, even
potentially deadly, illicit drug use.

There also are practical problems created by the federally promoted
proposal that are troublesome.

A car is vital to both the rich and poor for most people in California. Is
it right and sensible to imperil their ability to commute to work - or even
treatment - because they behaved in a way that might be more amenable to
treatment in a non-punitive way?

There are no clear statistics from when the law was in effect and since it
has lapsed that demonstrate the deterrent effect of the sanction.

While not cheap, programs that have judicial flexibility have shown good
results. These include Kern County Municipal Court Judge Frank Hoover's
pioneering, innovative and much replicated "drug court."

By both word and deed, Davis has made it clear that he is not going to be
outflanked by anyone on crime. In many cases, that is commendable. And zero
tolerance has a place in the scheme of things.

But the goals of society sometimes are best served when the law is
administered with a deft hand. This kind of sweeping and inflexible
approach does not serve anyone well, which is why many experts in the field
do not embrace it.