PETITIONS FILED TO HAVE DRUG SENTENCE REDUCTION PLACED ON NOVEMBER BALLOT

A proposed constitutional amendment in Ohio would lessen the penalties for
certain drug offenses, and local boards of election report a large number
of registered voters have signed petitions to put the matter on the Nov. 5
ballot.

State Issue 1 would require treatment for certain drug offenders in lieu of
incarceration. The current ballot language for Issue 1 states that if the
measure is passed, the state would be required to spend $247 million over
seven years to pay for drug treatment programs.

Nancy Moore, Belmont County deputy director of elections, said that office
received 219 valid petitions regarding the matter and these contained 2,229
valid signatures. There are approximately 42,000 registered voters in
Belmont County.

In Monroe County, there are just under 10,000 registered voters. Petitions
submitted there contained 437 valid signatures, explained county director
of elections Margaret Hansen. A total of 92 petitions were received in her
office, though 17 were declared invalid.

Elections board officials in both Harrison and Jefferson counties said they
were continuing to work on verifying the names submitted to them on the
petitions.

Rick Bear, deputy director of elections in Harrison County, said that
county received "quite a few" petitions, but he did not have numbers yet
available. Harrison County has about 11,000 registered voters.

"We have to have our numbers to the Secretary of State's office by
Wednesday, and we will be pushing it," said Diane Gribble, deputy director
of elections in Jefferson County. "We're having a lot of trouble with them."

Jefferson County has 53,000 registered voters, and the office received 345
petitions, she said.

The Ohio Campaign for New Drug Policies groups has collected 779,728
signatures on petitions to have the drug treatment measure put before
voters on Nov. 5. This is almost double the number required by state law or
355,422.

The Ohio Revised Code mandates that valid signatures representing 10
percent of the total vote in the 1998 gubernatorial election be collected
on the petitions.

The measure would permit the records of those completing such programs to
be sealed and kept confidential. In addition, the maximum sentence for
eligible first-time, second-time and certain repeat drug offenders would be
limited to 90 days incarceration.

Judges would be required to order treatment instead of incarceration for
first-time or second-time offenders charged with drug possession.

The offender would have to request treatment, have not been convicted of or
imprisoned for a violent felony within five years of committing the current
offense, have not been sentenced to a term of incarceration that would
interfere with participation in treatment, and in the same proceeding, have
not been convicted of or charged with other drug-related offenses or
misdemeanors involving theft, violence or the threat of violence, according
to the ballot language.