Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jun 2001
Source: Boston Phoenix (MA)
Copyright: 2001 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group.
Contact:  http://www.bostonphoenix.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/54
Author: Alan Johnson, Dispatch Statehouse Reporter	
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

GROUP OPPOSES JAIL FOR OFFENDERS

Bolstered by their success in California and other Western states, three 
wealthy businessmen are preparing to ask Ohio voters to require some drug 
offenders to be treated instead of jailed.

Armed with favorable poll results, the trio has hired a Columbus attorney 
to draw up a proposed constitutional amendment for the November 2002 ballot 
that would prescribe treatment for first- and second-time drug offenders -- 
even users of drugs such as cocaine and heroin -- instead of imprisonment.

The Campaign for New Drug Policies, a Santa Monica, Calif., group whose 
supporters include Peter B. Lewis, chairman of Cleveland-based Progressive 
Insurance, is making the rounds in Ohio in preparation for mounting an 
initiative drive to gather 500,000 signatures to place the issue on the ballot.

The group argues that most Americans have little faith in a U.S. drug 
policy that sends drug users to jail, a strategy three times as expensive 
as treatment.

"Whereas in the past drug abuse was seen as a 'them' problem, now it's seen 
as a 'we' problem," said Bill Zimmerman, executive director of the campaign.

The campaign to pass the initiative is expected to cost about $2.5 million, 
he said.

The group commissioned a statewide public-opinion poll to sample Ohioans' 
attitudes on drug policies and hired attorney Charles R. Saxbe, a former 
state legislator and son of former U.S. Attorney General William Saxbe, to 
draft the amendment.

Zimmerman said yesterday that 80 percent of 700 registered Ohio voters 
surveyed April 17-24 -- 83 percent in central Ohio -- indicated they would 
strongly or likely support such an amendment.

The initiative will be modeled after Proposition 36, approved last year by 
61 percent of California voters.

The Ohio initiative would:

* Divert first- and second-time, nonviolent drug offenders to treatment 
programs instead of prison. Drug-trafficking charges would not be changed.

* Tap public funds for treatment, perhaps as much as $40 million annually.

* Limit jail time to 90 days for those removed from treatment programs by 
judges. This provision would apply only to those who possess or abuse 
drugs, not those convicted of trafficking.

* Give judges discretion about charging drug offenders with felonies or 
misdemeanors.

Among those the campaign officials are courting is Luceille Fleming, 
director of the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.

"I really don't have an opinion yet. I don't know enough about it," Fleming 
said yesterday. "I am looking at it carefully because they got it passed in 
California by 61 percent."

However, Fleming said Ohio already has an active diversion program to treat 
drug users instead of jailing them.

"We already do that through a network of 44 drug courts."

Fleming's agency has a $150 million annual budget, more than 96 percent of 
it earmarked for treatment programs.

Ohio prisons chief Reginald A. Wilkinson has said the amendment is unnecessary.

The Campaign for New Drug Policies was created in 1995 to back medical 
marijuana initiatives, which it did successfully in seven states.

In addition to Lewis, campaign backers include billionaire 
financier/philanthropist George Soros and John Spurling, founder of the 
University of Phoenix.

To make Ohio's ballot, backers would need 335,421 valid signatures on 
petitions, 10 percent of the number of votes cast in the 1998 gubernatorial 
election.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager