CHIEF JUSTICE BLASTS DRUG ISSUE

Ohio Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer said a proposed state constitutional
amendment should be rejected on Nov. 5 because it would dilute the
authority of judges.

"Let us make this very clear. Very few, very few first-time possessors of
drugs are sentenced to prison unless they are also guilty of a prior felony
. . . or violate a community sanction,'' Moyer told about 200 judges
yesterday during his annual State of the Judiciary speech.

Afterward, Moyer detailed why he opposes Issue 1.

"We simply should not be amending the constitution with 6,500 words,'' he
said. "I think it's aborting the system when one cannot get legislation
adopted to try to amend the constitution. It takes away the discretion of
judges.''

Meanwhile, groups favoring and opposing the proposed amendment issued
conflicting statistics yesterday on how many first- and second-time drug
offenders are imprisoned.

The Ohio Judicial Conference issued a survey of 100 judges who said they
offer treatment to virtually all low-level drug offenders.

If approved, the amendment would require that judges give certain
nonviolent drug offenders the option of up to 18 months of treatment
instead of jail time.

Moyer said offenders have told him court-ordered programs work because of
the looming threat of sanctions, including prison.

"We have many people in rehabilitation today under court programs, and
that's why they're successful.''

The Ohio Campaign for New Drug Policies -- which supports Issue 1 -- cited
felony possession cases from 2000 showing that 57 percent of low-level drug
offenders end up in prison.

Edward J. Orlett, director of the Issue 1 campaign, said 3,416 drug
offenders were imprisoned in 2000, including 1,250 on probation violations.

But Stacey A. Frohnapfel, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Alcohol
and Drug Addiction Services, called those statistics "really, really high.
It's awfully misleading if you don't take into account virtually all are
pleaded down.''

Frohnapfel said about 1,500 people go to prison each year on lesser felony
drug-possession charges.

Tom Stickrath, acting director of public safety, said that the amendment is
expected to divert 1,458 drug offenders from prison the first year and
1,166 in subsequent years. There are about 44,000 inmates in the state
prison system, he said.

If the issue is approved, the state will have to set aside $19 million in
start-up costs, $38 million annually for the next six years, and an
undetermined but adequate amount each year thereafter. The total would be
$247 million through the first seven years.

Gov. Bob Taft opposes the drug amendment and has tried, with limited
success, to raise money to fight it.

"We know that judges and political leaders believe that most drug offenders
get treatment already in Ohio,'' Orlett said. "The data do not lie. Ohio is
failing to deliver treatment to most drug offenders, and the overwhelming
majority wind up incarcerated.''

Orlett said that of 5,930 felony drug convictions in 2000, more than 4,400
offenders wound up in jail or prison -- 74 percent.

A half-dozen judges held a news conference to speak out against Issue 1
yesterday.

Among them was Madison County Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Nichols, who
called it "the Trojan horse of drug reform.''

Judge Steve Williams, who created the first juvenile drug court in
Fairfield County in 1997, called it "bad policy. . . . I believe in
effective treatment, accountable treatment.''

And Judge Philip H. Rose of Vinton County Juvenile and Probate Court, said,
"It would reverse all of the gains Ohio has made. . . . I have not had one
judge tell me they were for the initiative.''