DRUG TREATMENT SAID TO REDUCE CRIME

PHOENIX (AP) Arizona's voter-approved program of sentencing
nonviolent, first- and second-time drug offenders to treatment rather
than prison reduces crime and saves tax money, according to a state
Supreme Court study.

The program is part of a 1996 law, which also allows doctors to
prescribe marijuana and some other outlawed drugs to severely or
terminally ill patients. It was repealed by the legislature but
reapproved last fall in a public referendum.

The study, ordered by the Legislature, found the drug offender program
saved taxpayers more than $2.56 million, and that 78 percent of the
participants later tested drug-free.

"The outcome benefits of this intervention over time will reveal not
only fiscal and crime reduction benefits, but an increase in quality
of life conditions of this population such as improved family and
social relationships, increased work productivity and wages, and
decreased health system costs," the high court said.

Chuck Blanchard, legal counsel with the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said of the study that drug treatment rather than
prison "is a no-brainer" way to fight crime.

"If you really want to solve the crime problem, you have to deal with
the treatment side," the former Arizona lawmaker said.

The court looked at 2,622 drug offenders placed on probation and in
county-run drug treatment programs from July 1997 to June 1998. There
are five treatment programs varying in intensity and duration
depending on the severity of an offender's addiction and psychological
problems.

The study also found that 77 percent of the participants made at least
one of the required payments toward the cost of their treatment.

"As it turns out, the (law) is doing more to reduce drug use and crime
than any other state program and saving taxpayer dollars at the same
time," said Judge Rudy Gerber of the Arizona Court of Appeals in Tucson.

However, the Supreme Court study didn't fully gauge the success of
treatment programs because it excluded recidivism rates. Court
officials said they'll look at those rates after the end of the
current fiscal year.

"This study was only for the first year of the program," said Barbara
Broderick, the court's director of adult services. "We eventually want
to be able look at quality of life indicators such as if they're
drug-free, have a job, are paying taxes and restitution."

The study was criticized by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. The
county includes Phoenix.

"This report does a disservice to the Supreme Court in that it gives
the illusion all this money is being saved," said Deputy County
Attorney Barnett Lotstein.

He said it's misleading for the court to include first-time offenders
among those kept from prison because they would never be imprisoned.

Maricopa County has offered its own drug treatment diversion programs
for first-time offenders for the past 10 years.

Arizona is not the first state to conclude that such programs work.
Nevada officials, for instance, say their diversion and treatments
programs are working to keep offenders off drugs and from committing
crimes while freeing up jail space for violent offenders.