CHANGES TO PROP. 36 PROPOSED

State Senator Denise Moreno Ducheny's office announced Tuesday the senator
has introduced a bill designed to strengthen the Substance Abuse and Crime
Prevention Act, also known as Proposition 36.

Prop. 36, passed in November 2000, allows first- and second-time nonviolent
drug offenders to get treatment instead of jail or prison time.

Ducheny's bill would require more frequent drug testing for offenders and
would pattern itself after the state's drug-court program.

Ducheny released a statement that her bill would add the "sanctions and
structure" required to make Prop. 36 work better.

The statement from her office cited a UCLA study, released in December,
that found that only 24 percent of offenders who entered the Prop. 36
program completed it.