cannabisnews.com: California Tries Treatment For Drug Users 





California Tries Treatment For Drug Users 
Posted by FoM on July 02, 2001 at 07:59:30 PT
By  Valerie Alvord, Special for USA Today
Source: USA Today
The nation's boldest effort to put drug users into treatment instead of prison begins Monday in California. Proposition 36, a sweeping initiative approved by voters in November, directs judges to require treatment instead of incarceration to most non-violent, drug users on their first and second offense. It does not apply to drug dealers.Previously, treatment was an option only if offenders pleaded guilty and a judge approved. In California, 37,000 offenders a year will be eligible, at a savings of $250 million, officials say. 
As the first large state to try such a program, California will be under scrutiny from public health and criminal justice officials nationwide.A similar program passed in Arizona in 1996, but only 6,000 people have taken part in it.Nationally, an estimated 3.6 million people 12 and older are addicted to illicit drugs, according to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, whose study is coordinated by the federal government. Last year's statistics show that almost 25% of the country's 1.9 million inmates were locked up for drug offenses.Organizers who helped win approval for Proposition 36 say they hope to place similar measures on the ballots in Florida, Ohio and Michigan in November 2002.Advocates say the war on drugs hasn't defeated addiction or ended the need for bigger prisons and that the public is turning away from harsh punishment for non-violent drug users.Many prosecutors and police officials say the approach in California won't work because it does not require regular drug testing for offenders in treatment.Jim McDonough, Florida's drug policy chief, vows to fight what he calls the Prop. 36 "hoax" and says the initiative is "nothing more than a bill to foster legalization of drugs."Many judges, prosecutors and public defenders worry that California's 15,000 drug centers will be overwhelmed."The stakes are high," says Jack Riley, criminal justice director of RAND, a non-partisan think tank. "If Prop. 36 succeeds to any extent, we may see wide scale diversion across the country from incarceration to treatment. If it doesn't work, we probably have done great harm to that cause."Source: USA Today (US)Author: Valerie Alvord, Special for USA TodayPublished: July 2, 2001Copyright: 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.Contact: editor usatoday.comWebsite: http://www.usatoday.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Proposition 36 Informationhttp://www.adp.ca.gov/SACPA/prop36.shtmlDrug-Rehab Experiment Begins Sunday in California http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10164.shtmlCalifornia Lack Resource for Law on Drug Offenders http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8637.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by Dan B on July 03, 2001 at 04:25:30 PT:
FOX News
The motto for FOX News should be "The Voice of Drug Warriors." With a leading man like Bill O'Reilly (motto: "More brainwashed Americans look to ME for their news than to any other Cable source"), is there any wonder why Republicans favor this cable news broadcast over any other?I read an article yesterday that said FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) did a study of FOX News and found that while they claim to have a "fair a well-balanced approach to the news," in fact about 2/3 of their guests are Republicans (one can only assume that the other 1/3 are Democrats, as they have absolutely no interest in hearing from anyone else. This in itself is not "fair and well-balanced"). Anyway, I believe I read this article in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, which would mean that it was intended as an advertisement for FOX News (Lubbock Motto: "More brainwashed Republicans per capita than in any other city!"--this town has, for a number of years, had the highest percentage of Rush Limbaugh fans in the world). Okay. Just had to get that out of my system. When I read a headline that says a state (or any other organization) is going to "try" treatment as an option, two things come to mind: (1) the authors clearly want to impress upon their readers that this is merely a chance to "prove" that treatment won't work without the threat of prison, and (2) that it really doesn't matter because drug warriors are running the treatment facilities too, and they'll do everything they can to make miserable the lives of their "patients" (read: "prisoners").'Nuff said.Dan B
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Comment #2 posted by dddd on July 02, 2001 at 09:27:29 PT
L.A. news
...I was interested to see how the major local networknews would spin this.FOX news showed a rerun of thisnasty little commercial that Martin Sheen did in oppositionto the measure.....He said;"This would basically legalizedrugs like crack,methamphetamine,and the date rape drug..."then,,,,after some more anti tilted blather,,,the peice endedwith,,:"This new law,,enacted by the people,,could be changedin the courts,or even by the legistlature."...???...Now,,I guess I should know that ,yes,a court can over-rule thewill of the people,,(the recent election for example),,,but it'shard to believe that they could do this in the first place,,,,but also,that they would suggest it on the evening news!dddd
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Comment #1 posted by greenfox on July 02, 2001 at 08:23:13 PT
Cynical, typical
Many judges, prosecutors and public defenders worry that California's 15,000 drug centers will be overwhelmed.Yeah right. If this is such a problem, why don't they take all the money they have gotton from forfieture and use ThAT money?  No? Why not? No one knows. Oh, by the way, there's Officer Jackboot in his brand new Ford Explorer. How nice.sly in green, foxy in kind...-gf
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