STUDY BACKS TREATMENT, NOT PRISON, FOR ADDICTS

In a report that likely will increase debate on the merits of
imprisoning substance abusers, the Arizona Supreme Court today issued
a study concluding that the state's new mandatory-treatment law has
broken drug users' habits in the short term and saved the state
millions of dollars.

With the 1996 passage of Proposition 200, Arizona became the first
state to prohibit incarceration of first- and second-time drug users
in favor of mandatory treatment. The law, which voters reaffirmed last
November after legislators moved to weaken it, also legalized
marijuana for medical use, but that provision has never been
implemented.

$2.5 million saved

The state Supreme Court study concluded that in 1998 Arizona saved
$2.5 million by sending users into treatment rather than prison and
that 77 percent of the offenders remained drug-free at the end of the
year.

"I was a trial judge for 10 years, and I got tired of the
revolving-door syndrome - I'd send drug offenders to prison, and
they'd wind up right back in the court system. Prison was no cure for
the drug problem," said Judge Rudolph Gerber of the Arizona Court of
Appeals, who was on the committee that sponsored the ballot initiative.

"I'd like to see this become a national model," he
added.

Too new to judge?

But critics remain skeptical. They contend that after only one year,
the program is too new to be deemed a success.

"The results are based on the premise that all drug offenders go to
prison. That is not the case," said Bill Fitzgerald, spokesman for
Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley.

"Prisons aren't full of first-time offenders," Fitzgerald said, adding
that the state already has several treatment programs. "Anyone making
the assumption that everyone automatically goes to prison is way off."

Charles Blanchard, chief counsel of the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said he is encouraged by the results of the study. He
said the federal government is moving in the same direction as
Arizona, proposing $100 million in funds in next year's budget to
finance drug-treatment programs across the country. The government, he
added, already has encouraged states to establish drug courts with the
authority to drop drug charges for offenders who go through treatment
and remain clean. More than 400 drug courts are operating around the
country, up from 12 in 1994.

Arizona's Drug Medicalization, Prevention and Control Act of 1996
mandated that funds from a liquor tax be used to finance treatment
programs for nonviolent first- and second-time offenders. Third-time
offenders would be subject to imprisonment.

Proposition 200 grew out of a study to find alternatives to
incarcerating drug offenders.