The political landscape in Washington, DC, is undergoing a dramatic shift as the Democratic tide rolls in, and, after eight years of drug war status quo under the Republicans, drug reformers are no

Tough on crime can still trump smart on crime, if Tuesday's elections results on sentencing initiatives in two of the nation's most progressive states are any indication.

This is a final reminder for folks in California. Vote Yes on Prop. 5 tomorrow to provide treatment instead of incarceration for drug offenders.

With election day little more than a month away, it is time for a round-up of drug policy reform initiatives facing voters in November.

Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP--the drug czar's office) director John Walters headed to California this week to try t

With the November 4 elections now less than two weeks away, most people, drug reformers included, are focused on the near term.

For Immediate Release: October 20, 2008
Contact: Margaret Dooley-Sammuli at (213) 291-4190 or Tommy McDonald at (510) 229-5215

California Society of Addiction Medicine Endorses Proposition 5: Treatment Community Unifying Behind Measure

SACRAMENTO, October 20 – The California Society of Addiction Medicine (CSAM) has endorsed Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act. The association of physicians specializing in addiction treatment will be discussing the measure at their annual gathering in Newport Beach this week. Prop. 5 would significantly expand access to drug treatment for young people, nonviolent offenders and California’s prison and parole populations.

Dr. Judy Martin, president of CSAM, said, “We have tried incarceration as a primary response to addictive illness for decades and it has failed utterly. Prop. 5 marks a historic shift towards a treatment approach for nonviolent drug offenses. Decades of research and experience show that addiction responds very well to treatment. By reducing addictive behavior, treatment also reduces drug-motivated crime. Now is the time for our policies to reflect that fact. Prop. 5 will bring our response to addiction in line with the science, while protecting public safety.”

Dr Martin continued, “Successful addiction treatment holds individuals accountable for their behavior. Prop. 5 gets that right, too, by incorporating sanctions in the community and jail sanctions. Prop. 5 enhances the court’s authority to determine who should and shouldn’t participate in court-supervised treatment and to hold those people accountable during treatment.”

California spends $10 billion each year to operate state prisons, but little of that money goes to treatment or rehabilitation for inmates. According to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, more than 140,000 of the 170,000 people in prison in California have a drug problem.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office calculates that Prop. 5 will lower incarceration costs by $1 billion each year and will cut another $2.5 billion in state costs for prison construction. This doesn’t include savings related to reduced crime, lower social costs (e.g. emergency room visits, child protective services, welfare), and increased individual productivity.

Dr. Martin continued, “California cannot continue with its failed policies toward addiction. Now is the time to invest in what we know works to reduce addiction-motivated crime – drug treatment.”

For more information, visit www.Prop5Yes.org and www.csam-asam.org.

I’ve been severely remiss in failing thus far to cover the very important Prop. 5 in California. The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA) would save billions in incarceration costs by referring many drug offenders into treatment instead of prison. It’s a significant reform and the vested drug war interests are in full-blown panic mode trying to defeat it.

The drug czar is in California right now campaigning against it, and a who’s who of drug war profiteers have assembled a well-funded No on 5 campaign, branding Prop. 5 as "the drug dealer’s bill of rights." So who exactly is funding opposition to this commonsense drug treatment initiative?

DPA director Ethan Nadelmann explains via email:

Last week the powerful prison guards union contributed $1 million to the opposition campaign.  That's on top of hundreds of thousands of dollars from Indian tribes/casinos with close links to law enforcement as well as $100,000 from the California Beer and Beverage Distributors.

Isn’t it obvious what’s going on here? The prison industry lobbies shamelessly to keep as many people in prison as possible. The alcohol industry defends the interests of the criminal justice infrastructure that protects their monopoly on legal intoxication. And yet the drug czar has the audacity to present George Soros’s support for reform as some kind of shady conspiracy. It’s just amazing, it really is.

It’s not even my style to go around accusing our opposition of unscrupulous drug war profiteering at every turn, but what else is there to say about this? It’s right in front of our face. It’s as transparent as it is hypocritical. And it can’t be allowed to succeed.

If you live in California, please vote YES on Prop. 5 and tell everyone you know to do the same.