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Newsbrief:
Whites
Benefit
from
California's
Proposition
36
Disproportionately,
UCLA
Study
Finds
7/18/03
In a study released on July
7, researchers at the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Program reviewing
the first year of implementation of California's pioneering "treatment
not jail" law surprisingly found that whites made up half of those referred
under the measure designed to divert nonviolent drug offenders from prison
into drug treatment. Whites make up only 30% of all California drug
offenders.
While the study's authors
did not seek to explain the anomaly, interested reformers offered some
tentative opinions to the Los Angeles Times. Admitting that the fact
that whites seemed to be benefiting more from the law was a concern, Whitney
Taylor, former director of Proposition 36 implementation for the Drug Policy
Alliance, suggested that it resulted from differential policing.
A heavier police presence in black and Latino neighborhoods probably means
higher arrest and conviction rates and thus more members of those communities
becoming ineligible to participate. "I don't think it's a problem
with the proposition," she said, "I think it's a problem for the criminal
justice system."
Dan MacAllair, executive
director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, speculated that
whites could have access to better legal representation. "There are
questions that need to be answered," he said. "I would want to look
at arrest and charging patterns. Is it an economic crime in certain
communities as opposed to a user crime in white communities? We need
to be collecting the data."
In other findings, the UCLA
researchers noted that methamphetamine users made up 50% of those diverted
to treatment, cocaine users came in at 15%, and heroin users at 11%.
Strangely enough, persons arrested for marijuana crimes constituted 12%
of all diversions.
Visit http://www.uclaisap.org/Prop36/reports.htm
to read the report online.
-- END --
|
Issue #296, 7/18/03
Editorial: Tragic Confusion |
Medical Marijuana Eroding Capitol Hill Prohibition Consensus -- Democrats Also On Attack against Drug Czar, Drug War in General |
With Hip-Hopper's Support, NY Governor Tries Again on Rockefeller Law Reform -- Not Good Enough, Say Critics |
Bush, Ashcroft Ask Supreme Court for Permission to Punish Doctors Who Recommend Medical Marijuana |
DRCNet Book Review: "Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America," by Ted Galen Carpenter (2003, Palgrave Macmillan, $24.95) |
Newsbrief: North Carolina Prosecutor Charges Methamphetamine Cook with Terrorist Offense |
Newsbrief: Whites Benefit from California's Proposition 36 Disproportionately, UCLA Study Finds |
Newsbrief: No Needle Exchange in Delaware -- Lack of Political Support Cited |
Newsbrief: Colombian Supreme Court Blocks President's Effort to Recriminalize Drug Possession |
Newsbrief: Brazil to Cooperate in Andean Drug Plane Shoot-Down Strategy |
Newsbrief: Peru to Modify Drug Penalties -- One Step Forward, One Step Back, Some Standing in Place |
Newsbrief: Legalize It, Says Canada's National Post |
Newsbrief: This Week's Corrupt Cop Story |
Web Scan: CEDRO, Foreign Policy, Reason, Nation, Working for Change, Washington Post, Molly Ivins, usfumigation.org, UN Report, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sentencing Project |
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