A MORE HUMANE APPROACH

Opponents of Proposition 5, a modest reform of California's drug laws
and parole practices designed in part to help alleviate the woeful
crowding of the state prison system, paint a scary picture of what
will happen if voters approve this measure. Parole for
methamphetamine dealers will be shortened from three years to six
months! Lock the doors!

Well, yes, the measure will reduce parole to six months from three
years for a wide range of nonviolent crimes, reducing the stress on
the parole system. But parole eligibility for certain violent crimes
actually will be increased, in some cases from the current maximum of
four years to five years. So if that former meth dealer -- who will
have actually undergone drug treatment and education while in prison
- -- does anything violent, it's back to prison.

Prop. 5 would expand drug treatment for nonviolent drug offenders and
reduce the use of incarceration as a way to deal with addicts and
other drug users. It builds on Prop. 36, which voters passed in 2000
and which puts certain nonviolent drug users into rehabilitation
rather than jail or prison. Prop. 36 has saved taxpayers about $2
billion and graduated 84,000 people with drug problems from
rehabilitation programs. It hasn't been perfect, but it has been
productive. Prop. 5 would build on that success.

Prop. 5 would increase the number of nonviolent drug offenders,
including vulnerable young people, who receive rehabilitation rather
than imprisonment. It would require prisons to offer drug
rehabilitation programs, which most do not do presently.

Over time, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office,
it should save taxpayers considerable money. To be sure, it will
appropriate $460 million a year for rehabilitation programs. But the
LAO estimates that while the cumulative cost could reach $1 billion,
it would at the same time save about $1 billion in prison and parole
expenses. Over time it should save Californians $2.5 billion or more
in capital costs for prison construction.

Prop. 5 also reduces possession of less than an ounce of marijuana
from a misdemeanor to an infraction (similar to a traffic ticket).
This will have little enforcement impact, since current law makes
such possession a misdemeanor punishable by a $100 fine, which will remain.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the expensive and
counterproductive "war on drugs" is not working. Drug addiction can
be tragic for individuals and their families. But most of the
ancillary damage to society -- increased street crime, funding gang
activity, fundraising crimes like burglary, robbery and mugging --
are caused by the laws against drugs rather than the drugs
themselves. Prop. 5 is a modest step toward a more humane and
productive approach to the problem of drug use than the strictly
punitive approach that has failed so abysmally.

We recommend a "yes" vote on Prop. 5.