CALIFORNIA VOTERS TO EYE TREATMENT

Are harsh sentences for all drug offenders wise? Voters in at least two
states will decide that this fall, even as Congress and many state
legislatures debate the issue.

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who bankrolled successful ballot
drives for legalizing medical marijuana, is financing the latest
initiatives.

In California and Massachusetts, voters are being asked to create new laws
that would require the option of treatment alternatives, not mandatory
sentences.

"What we're trying to do is restore a measure of the kind of discretion and
judgment that judges used to have ... to render a just result, not just a
harsh result," said Carl Valvo of Massachusetts.

If voters agree, and advocates claim polls show they will, more alternatives
will spread across the country, said Ethan Nadelmann.