DRUGS-POLICY BACKERS MAY MAKE BALLOT

Group Plans to File Signatures, Force Vote on Issue

COLUMBUS - A group that would require Ohio to treat many nonviolent drug
offenders rather than incarcerate them appears to have collected enough
signatures to put the proposal on the November ballot.

But Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery and four county prosecutors, at
a news conference Tuesday, blasted the group's proposed constitutional
amendment, which would give certain nonviolent drug offenders two chances
in treatment programs before facing limited jail time with their third
offense. The amendment would require the state to spend $38 million a year
on the effort for the first six years.

The Ohio Campaign for New Drug Policies on Tuesday announced that it will
file about 650,000 to 700,000 signatures - roughly twice the required
335,000 needed to put the amendment to a statewide vote.

The filing deadline is today. The petitions are to be submitted to the
secretary of state's office, and signatures will be sorted by county and
given to each county board of elections to be validated. The process will
take three weeks or longer, said Chris Abbruzze, secretary of state spokesman.

Ohioans Against Unsafe Drug Laws, an organization co-chaired by Hope Taft,
wife of Gov. Bob Taft, and created to defeat the amendment, does not plan
to try to invalidate signatures, said spokeswoman Jenny Camper.

"We do expect a real high rate of error," she said, but "we're assuming
that they'll probably have enough valid signatures."

Dave Fratello, political director for the drug initiative's national
organization, said the petitions have been running at a "60 percent- plus"
validity rate.

The Ohio initiative is part of the national Campaign for New Drug Policies,
which has successfully pushed similar changes in Arizona and California,
and mounted a losing effort in Massachusetts, Fratello said. The effort is
backed by billionaires George Soros, Peter Lewis and John Sperling, and
this year is also running campaigns in Michigan and Washington, D.C.

Fratello estimated the campaign will spend about $3 million in Ohio,
including money spent gathering signatures, but, he said, "There's a big X
factor about how much money (Gov. Taft's) going to raise."

Taft has sent letters to potential donors asking up to $25,000 each to help
him defeat the issue.

Critics argue that the issue belongs in the General Assembly, not the state
constitution. But Ed Orlett, the campaign's Ohio director, said,
legislation similar to the initiative has been introduced in the General
Assembly, and remained untouched since last October.

He also said the mandated $38 million a year is "pretty puny compared to
what (other constitutional amendments) have done."

"Ohio's drug abuse problem is also a serious, unmet social need," said
Orlett, a former state representative from Dayton.

Attorney General Montgomery, however, called the amendment "a systematic
and dangerous attempt to dismantle the checks and balances that are
embedded in our criminal justice system."

Montgomery, a former state legislator and county prosecutor, said it would
be a mistake to pass the proposal as a constitutional amendment. As such,
no changes could be made without a vote of the people, even if mistakes
were found, she said.

In addition, the state would be required to make the spending on drug
programs a priority above education, prisons, parks and other areas not
specifically covered in the constitution, Montgomery said.

The proposed amendment, at 6,500 words, is longer than the U.S.
Constitution, she added.

"It's complex. It's vague. It's full of loopholes," said Montgomery, a
Republican.

Two Democratic prosecutors - Lynn Grimshaw of Scioto County and Victor
Vigluicci of Portage County - and two Republican prosecutors - Stephen
Schumaker of Clark County and Mike Allen of Hamilton County - said the
proposed amendment would hamper efforts to fight illegal drugs use.

"It's basically a decriminalization bill," Grimshaw said.

Education, treatment and law enforcement all are required to combat drugs
and the amendment would badly hamper law enforcement said Schumaker,
president of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association.

Orlett said, "They're just trying to scare people. . . . I guess that's
what you do in war when you're losing."

Fratello said polls show 65 percent of Ohioans support the issue, a higher
percentage than Californians who supported it at this time in that election.