DRUG PROGRAMS IMPOSED BY LAW MAKING A MARK

Arizonans still can't legally use marijuana for medical purposes, but those
involved with Proposition 200 say the anti-drug programs tied into the law
are having positive results.

To date, $4 million has been spent to treat drug-abusing criminal offenders
in the hopes of reducing their likelihood of re-offending.

Another $4 million is earmarked to educate parents of children at high risk
of future drug abuse in hopes of turning the tide of drug dependency and
criminal activity.

The programs are funded through $8 million a year the law sends from liquor
taxes into a Drug Treatment and Education Fund.

Proposition 200's primary goal - to legalize marijuana for those suffering
from painful, often fatal, illnesses - has been tied up in federal courts
and hasn't been enacted.

It is too early to determine how well Proposition 200's anti-drug component
keeps people out of the justice system and out of prisons. The state is
compiling a report on the law's first full year in effect.

But the early numbers look good, said Barbara Broderick, adult probation
services director for the Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts in
Phoenix, who is compiling the state report.

Of the 2,625 receiving services in the first year, ending June 30, 932
completed an assigned program and many remain in treatment, she said.

Law Funds Programs

Of those completing a program, three of four still are drug free and three
of four paid all required co-payments during treatment, Broderick said.

The law funds treatment programs for anyone convicted of a crime who has a
substance-abuse problem - directly if a judge gives him or her probation,
and upon release from prison if sentenced to prison followed by probation.

It also says those convicted of possessing drugs only for personal use -
not for sale - for a first and second time must be assigned to a treatment
program and not sent to prison.

But Broderick said county attorneys in the state's 15 counties have charged
many possession-for-use defendants with possessing drug paraphernalia since
the law was enacted. That means many drug-use offenders are landing in
prison instead of treatment programs.

All county-by-county data will not be compiled until early January, but
Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall might be the most zealous advocate of
this tactic to keep possession-for-use drug offenders going to prison.

Ed Espinoza, a Pima County Probation Department unit supervisor, said that
since the law was enacted, the county has sent nearly 1,000 offenders into
a treatment program.

He said fewer than 50, or less than 5 percent, are people charged for the
first or second time with only drug possession for personal use.

That compares with 21 percent statewide of offenders in the law's treatment
programs who were drug possession-for-use-only offenders, Broderick said.

In Maricopa County, the equivalent figure is 17.8 percent, said Randy Rice,
manager of Maricopa's substance-abuse programs.

``Sabotage The Law''

Pima County Legal Defender Isabel Garcia is critical of what she says is an
effort by county attorneys to ``sabotage the law by using tricks.''

``You can't tell me that just because you have rolling papers with your
marijuana you deserve to go to jail,'' Garcia said.

Charging people also with felony paraphernalia possession ``drives up the
cost of trials and saddles taxpayers with jail costs,'' she said.

Pima County Public Defender Susan Kettlewell also is critical of LaWall's
policy. ``We're not challenging it because it's a benefit for us to have
plea options,'' she said. ``But it seems to us to circumvent the law.''

Kettlewell said LaWall's office has charged people with possession of
paraphernalia for having ``hatbands, pockets, cola-can bottoms, shoes -
whatever they were carrying drugs in.''

``The county attorney believes everyone has the right to go to prison,''
she said.

LaWall justifies her policy. ``We charge people with paraphernalia not to
circumvent the law,'' she said. ``But Proposition 200 is screwy. It doesn't
allow jail time if probation is violated.''

Jail Is ``Effective Tool''

She said she wants judges to have ``a hammer'' to be able to put even
small-scale drug offenders in jail if they violate the terms of their
probation status.

``Unless you have that stick . . . all you can do is bring them back to
court for a scolding,'' she said.

``We're talking about short jail time and not prison,'' she said. ``I
believe it's an effective tool.''

Rice said his Maricopa County program assumes most drug addicts will have
relapses.

He said one of his agency's five treatment programs is a ``lapse, relapse
program in which we apply clients' previous learning to dealing with lapses
to eventually overcome them.''

Rice said 90 percent of drug abusers ``will use again within 90 days of
treatment. Historically that's meant prison or back into the original
program from the start. The message is failure.

``Now we put them in a program they believe will help them get beyond
addiction,'' he said. ``Our retention rate is good.''

LaWall said she supports the drug-treatment program the initiative made
possible. ``Definitely, no question, the treatment program is good,'' she
said. ``It's showing treatment works even for people ordered into it.''

Treatment Cheaper Than Jail

LaWall said it is important to recognize drug problems of offenders as soon
as possible and get them into a treatment regimen.

``I've long been a proponent of putting more money into treatment,'' she
said. ``The Legislature needs to recognize it's much cheaper to treat
people than to put them in prison. And it's better - there's less
recidivism.''

Espinoza said convicted offenders eligible for probation are screened to
find out if they have a substance-abuse problem and if so, what type and
intensity of treatment is best suited for them.

Treatment programs generally are a minimum of eight months and range from
just education and reasoning skills classes to an intensive in-patient
residential-treatment plan, he said.

The Probation Department has teachers for reasoning skills classes and for
classes toward a general equivalency diploma in reading and writing, life
skills and English for speakers of other languages, he said.

And it contracts with 22 private agencies for specialized services,
Espinoza said.

In Chris Nybakken's reasoning skills classes, she teaches offenders for two
two-hour sessions a week for 18 weeks, with about 10 students per class.

``These people have deficits that make their efforts to solve problems
ineffective,'' she said.

``Many are impulsive and we teach them to recognize when they're in a risky
situation and to stop and think of the long-term and short-term
consequences of dealing with it,'' Nybakken said.

75% Get Their GEDs

Rosa Gomez-Terlep, program manager for education services, said her program
conducts classes for 180 offenders a year at three sites.

Three-fourths of the offenders who seek a GED eventually receive a diploma,
she said.

A recent five-year Probation Department study found ``offenders active in
education programs were much less likely to (re-offend) and much more
likely to complete probation,'' she said.

Michael Calhoun is a substance-abuse counselor with county contractor
Recovery Counseling Services Inc. He said his firm's offender clients are
treated in groups and one-on-one sessions with counselors.

``We take a straight-out approach to try to get them to change their
thinking,'' he said. ``We try to motivate people and bolster their
self-esteem.''

Calhoun said each client goes to at least two sessions a week for 12 weeks
and is taken through the first three of Alcoholics Anonymous' 12 steps.
Clients are urged to attend full AA programs with a sponsor, he said.

``Treatment really does work,'' he said. ``I've seen many lives turned
around - those are our extra paychecks for doing this.''

6-Month Program Effective

Joe Parker, program supervisor for Casa de Vida, a county contracted
residential treatment provider, said up to 44 addicts - soon to be 53 -
live in the facility's long-term section for six months at a time.

Each one has supervised activities, including counseling and educational
classes, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, he said.

``We've kept statistics that show for a year (after leaving), 35 percent of
our clients do not relapse, but do maintain jobs or school enrollment and
have no further involvement with the criminal justice system,'' he said.

Espinoza said an outpatient costs an average of $25 to $40 a week while
residential offenders cost $65 a day - about the same as a prison inmate.

But taxpayers pay the full cost of inmates while Espinoza said the law
requires offenders to pay what they can afford for their treatment, on a
sliding scale.

Checked-by: Richard Lake