BATTLE BREWING OVER DRUG DIVERSION MEASURE

Big guns line up on both sides of $120 million initiative

Debate over a proposal to shift some 25,000 drug offenders from prison to
treatment programs annually is shaping up as a major fight on the fall ballot.

The drug treatment initiative is backed by the sponsors of Proposition 215,
the medical marijuana measure approved by California voters in 1996.

It's already drawing fire from police, prosecutors and prison guards.
Supporters include three North Coast lawmakers and other elected officials.

Others like the idea but worry the promise of $120 million for drug
treatment would be tied up by years of litigation.

"The bottom line is the $120 million is good," said John Abrahams, a public
defender who handles cases in Sonoma County's recently created drug court.

"What is of concern in this -- and we've seen it around Prop. 215 as well
- -- initiatives tend to generate 10 years of litigation after they're
passed," he said.

Only four counties delivered larger majorities for the medical marijuana
measure than Sonoma's 69 percent.

Proposition 215 passed with a 56 percent majority statewide.

If initiative petitions are any signal, the drug treatment measure is
popular here too: Only five other counties -- Los Angeles, Orange and San
Diego among them -- produced more signatures.

Passage of the measure would be the most sweeping change in California
criminal law since Three Strikes.

By shifting an estimated 25,000 nonviolent first- and second-time drug
offenders out of state prisons and county jails, the state's nonpartisan
legislative analyst says, the initiative would save taxpayers up to $250
million a year. It would also reduce the need for new prisons and jails.

The initiative also would require the state to spend $120 million a year on
drug treatment programs through 2006.

"We're trying to treat drug abuse as a health issue rather than a criminal
justice issue," campaign spokesman Dave Fratello said. Fratello is one of
several veterans of the medical marijuana campaign working on the drug
treatment initiative. Another one is billionaire George Soros, who
bankrolled both efforts.

It also has picked up endorsements from San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown
and 13 legislative Democrats, including Senate President John Burton of San
Francisco and Assembly members Kerry Mazzoni of San Rafael and Virginia
Strom-Martin of Duncans Mills.

Burton, whose district includes part of Sonoma County, makes no secret of
past drug problems and has long advocated shifting users out of the
criminal justice system.

"We should treat drug abuses as health problems," he said.

But Sonoma County District Attorney Mike Mullins said he thinks passage of
the initiative would threaten drug courts around the state, which route
offenders through treatment programs.

"I don't know anybody facing a simple drug possession case who isn't
offered treatment instead of incarceration in Sonoma County," he said.

Mullins complained that the treatment measure includes no funding for drug
testing and questioned whether it would strip judges of the right to
sanction users who don't successfully complete treatment programs.

Fratello said testing was left out because sponsors believe Congress and
the Legislature will continue to provide money for that purpose. "We
focused on what has been tough to fund -- treatment," he said.

The initiative is one of three that already have qualified for the November
ballot.