TREND MOVES AWAY FROM 'GET TOUGH' DRUG LAWS

Scores of laws and voter initiatives since 1996 have turned states away
from "get tough" drug policies that emphasize the penalties for drug
offenses, according to a report released Tuesday by an advocacy group.

States approved measures that stress treatment instead of incarceration,
restore voting rights and welfare benefits for offenders and allow the use
of marijuana for medical purposes. Overall, states were cobbling together
policies that treat addiction more like an illness than a crime, according
to the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that supports such an approach.

More than 150 laws have been passed and, increasingly, support has come
from both Democrats and Republicans, according to the report's authors and
state lawmakers who spoke in a teleconference Tuesday.

"There was a great deal of dissatisfaction with the way the war on drugs
has been pursued" from conservatives and liberals, said Washington state
Sen. Adam Kline, a Democrat who spoke about efforts to reduce recidivism in
his state.