Treatment not Time

Treatment not Time

From a news story by
CNN San Francisco Reporter Rusty Dornin

July 7, 2001

Secret Japanese-American Mission

He's not violent, but he's definitely got a drug problem. Under California's new law, offenders like Robert Downey Jr. could get sentenced to treatment, not time.

Glenn Backe of the Drug Policy Foundation says, "The only law they broke is they are in possession of drugs. They have no other crimes at the time; they have no other violent crimes in the last five years."

"You are charged with being under the influence of cocaine", says Judge Peggy Hora. She once used treatment and jail like the carrot and the stick. It was a stick that the new law all but takes away. "You are also eligible under California's new law which went into effect today."

Drug testing is another tool taken away by the new law. Without jail time or drug testing to keep addicts in line, Hora worries the whole experiment will end up sending the wrong message. "My biggest fear is we're going to spend all this money--a half billion dollars--to have people say treatment doesn't work and, that's not true."

In East Palo Alto's Free at Last drug treatment center, the new law will help pay to house another 12 addicts. But, from the courtrooms to the treatment centers, no one is exactly sure how the law is going to work.

Priya Hajic of the Free at Last clinic says, "We don't know how much money. We don't know exactly how many clients and we don't know what their needs are going to be.

Along with uncertainty, there are fears that prosecutors in some counties won't play fair.

Priya Hajic says, "Maybe the DA's are going to start pressing secondary charges on everyone and resisting arrest or solicitation, because if there is a secondary charge that will disqualify you, so you will get prison time."

California jails more drug users per capita than any other state. A change to not jailing low level offenders could save 250 million dollars a year, say supporters. For the next five and a half years, 36 thousand drug offenders will be sentenced to treatment.

Will they go?

Will they quit using drugs?

The answers will determine the outcome of one of California's boldest legal experiments.

Important background information for this article:

"On November 7, 2000, 61% of California voters passed Proposition 36, the Substance Abuse Crime Prevention Act (SACPA), which provides community-based treatment programs for non-violent defendants, probationers and parolees charged with drug possession or drug use offenses. According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, approximately 37,000 offenders will be diverted from the California correctional system into treatment programs."

(Betsy Kelly, Free At Last, used with permission)

Proposition 36 Took Effect July 1, 2001. For more specific information about Proposition 36, the California state law that this news article is based upon, see http://www.freeatlast.org/proposition_36/index.htm This information is from Free at Last, one of the agencies quoted in this article. Look for additional web links below..

Related Websites:

American Council for Drug Education: The American Council for Drug Education is "a substance abuse prevention and education agency that develops programs and materials based on the most current scientific research on drug use and its impact on society.
California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (ADP): The ADP works "…to prevent and reduce alcohol and other drug problems through public funding for local services provided by counties and community-based program". The agency also licenses treatment and recovery programs.
Club Drugs-National Institute on Drug Abuse
Drugs of Concern, Drug Enforcement Administration: This website gives statistics about drug use in the United States, and it defines and describes many controlled substances.
Free at Last: Success stories
National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information: This is a service of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service: This is an extensive list of websites about research and policy related to drug use/ drug treatment.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): NIDA is a part of the National Institutes of Health, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This excellent website contains information divided into three sections: information for researcher/ health professionals; parents and teachers; and students.
Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act: This is the State of California’s webpage containing the full text of the law enacted by Proposition 36. It also contains many good links to other websites and to drug treatment information.
US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration