U.S. DRUG CZAR SAYS PROP.5 'WEAKENS' CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Merced County Sheriff Says It Adds Layer Of Bureaucracy

SACRAMENTO -- The country's top drug cop came to Sacramento on Tuesday
to rip Proposition 5 as a back-door move to legalize drugs in the
United States.

In blasting the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot, National Drug Control
Policy director John Walters leveled some of his hardest shots at the
measure's principal backer, billionaire financier George Soros of New
York.

Walters said Soros and his Drug Policy Alliance can't achieve drug
legalization "by being honest and straightforward," so they've offered
Prop. 5 as a treatment plan for nonviolent offenders that will unclog
California's overcrowded prisons.

In the process, Walters said, the initiative will undermine
court-based treatment programs and "weaken our capacity to help people
in the criminal justice system" who still remain subject to punishment
if they fail.

Also criticizing Prop. 5 was Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin who said
would add another level of bureaucracy for an already financially
strapped state government.

Voters need to read the fine print, Pazin told the
Sun-Star.

"Look past the initial summary on the proposition, and you will find
another piece of bloated bureaucracy at the state level," he said.
"You will find that all of the money, instead of going to already in
place programs, is going to get mired down in Sacramento
bureaucracy."

Yes on 5 spokeswoman Margaret Dooley-Sammuli called the initiative a
"common-sense response" to drug-related crime and blasted Walters as a
spokesman for failed criminal justice policies.

The initiative would increase spending on drug programs by hundreds of
millions a year and divert a range of offenders incarcerated on drug
and property crimes out of prison and into treatment.

Proponents say the measure will lower prison costs by treating
offenders as addicts instead of criminals. Opponents say that will
give addicts more opportunity to commit crimes by reducing the
accountability they would face in the criminal justice structure.

Prop. 5's backers include the League of Women Voters, the California
Labor Federation and assorted unions, drug treatment providers and
civil rights groups.

Opponents include Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Mothers Against Drunk
Driving, California Attorney General Jerry Brown and the state's
leading law enforcement management and labor organizations.

Sun-Star Reporter Victor Patton contributed to this report.