OHIO SHOULD JUST SAY 'NO' TO ISSUE 1

There is a fantasy world and then there is the real world.

Supporters of Issue 1, the proposed constitutional amendment changing how
courts treat drug users, live in the fantasy world. In the real world,
citizens are expected to follow the law. Smoking marijuana or crack
cocaine, snorting cocaine or shooting heroin is against the law. The debate
on marijuana use is easier to accept but it is still a criminal act until
the law changes.

Issue 1, if approved, will mandate the state to create a Substance Abuse
Treatment Fund and spend $247 million over the next seven years. The issue
also will require judges order treatment programs instead of prison or jail
time for first-or second-time offenders charged with illegal possession or
use of a drug or for nonviolent charges resulting from drug abuse or addiction.

Opponents of Issue 1 say it will effectively tie the hands of judges in
dealing with drug abusers. It will force treatment instead of punishment,
regardless of whether the judge believes treatment isn't the correct sentence.

Drug abusers purchase their drugs with money obtained through thefts,
burglaries or selling drugs.

Read news accounts in this newspaper of defendants who come before the
judges in common pleas court. They are repeat offenders who have been given
chances to get their life in order. The majority of those defendants slip
back into the drug world because they make that choice, even after drug
treatment.

It would be more cost efficient to spend $247 million a year to get illegal
drugs off the street than to give drug addicts a slap on the wrist.

The young person caught with a bag of marijuana usually does get probation
for the first offense.

Persons caught with more serious drugs, such as crack cocaine, can ask for
treatment in lieu of conviction. The person pleads guilty to the crime, is
sentenced to prison time and then the prison time is suspended and
eliminated if that person successfully completes a drug treatment program.
The defendant also has to remain drug free for several years.

The court holds that substantial prison sentence over the defendant's head
as an incentive to successfully complete drug treatment and stay off drugs.
Unfortunately, the success rate is low.

Issue 1 will limit jail terms to 90 days even for chronic drug users. It
also will wipe the slate clean for all previous drug offenses, enabling
multiple drug abusers to be treated life first-time offenders.

A person who breaks into a home to steal to support a drug habit will be
allowed to enter treatment instead of being prosecuted for the burglary.
How would you feel if someone broke into your home to support their drug
addiction and all they got was the threat of 90 days in jail?

Issue 1 opponents point out that defendants wouldn't even have to submit to
drug testing under Issue 1 to prove to judges they are drug free and trying
to turn around their life.

Drug use is a major problem in Steubenville. The lives of many young people
are being ruined because of the deadly addiction of crack cocaine.

Everyone is entitled to one break in criminal court. When a person proves
they won't or can't get off drugs and continues a criminal lifestyle, then
courts are faced with very limited alternatives.

We view Issue 1 as the predecessor of legalizing illegal drugs.

We join with the Ohio associations of prosecuting attorneys, county
behavioral health authorities, sheriff's departments, prosecuting
attorneys, medical association and judges in urging Ohioans to vote "no" on
Issue 1.

If Issue 1 is approved, it will take another constitutional amendment to
correct the obvious flaws.

Issue 1 is a fantasy of its supporters and will not work.