cannabisnews.com: Proposition 200 Has Saved the State Millions!





Proposition 200 Has Saved the State Millions!
Posted by FoM on April 30, 1999 at 10:39:25 PT
Weekly News Summary from DRC Net!
Source: DRC Net
Arizona Supreme Court Study:Proposition 200 Has Saved the State Millions! When the voters of Arizona overwhelmingly passed Proposition 200 in November of 1996, United States Senator John Kyl stood in the well of the Senate and told his colleagues that his constituents had been "duped." By December of that year, Arizona's state legislature had passed bills which essentially gutted the measure.
A signature drive got the measure placed back on the ballot, however, effectively blocking the state's government from overturning the will of the voters until another election had been held. In November of 1998, Arizona voters once again approved the measure which forbids the incarceration of first and second-time non-violent drug offenders, and provides funding for treatment, allowing judges to divert other offenders, whose primary problems are linked to substance abuse, into treatment rather than jail. This week, the Arizona Supreme Court released a study of the impact of Proposition 200 which provides solid evidence that the people of Arizona knew very well what they were doing when they went to the polls -- twice. According to the study, diverting first and second time drug possessors to treatment and drug education courses saved the state over $2.5 million in its first year of operation. "And those numbers are conservative" says Sam Vagenas, director of "The People Have Spoken," the group that put the initiative back on the ballot in 1998. "The study only calculated the savings from first and second time drug possessors, who make up about 25% of the people diverted to treatment under the law. What it didn't count was the savings from diverting other non-violent offenders into treatment." Proposition 200 provided for a $4 million fund for drug treatment, with that money coming out of taxes on the sale of alcoholic beverages. "One of the important lessons that we've learned here in Arizona is that treatment itself de-incarcerates," Vagenas told The Week Online. "Judges, who see the impact of the drug laws, and who don't have to face elections, are predisposed to send someone to treatment rather than prison where appropriate, assuming that there's a treatment slot available." Proposition 200's impact in this regard was felt immediately. When it was passed in 1996, there were more than 200 people sitting in Arizona jails because there were no treatment beds available. Opponents of the new law argue that the report does not truly reflect the impact of the new policy. Broderick Lotstein, a special assistant Maricopa County Attorney, told the Arizona Daily Star that the report's findings were "silly. No judge will send a first-time offender to prison." Maricopa County, which boasts over 56% of all arrests for drug possession or sale in the state of Arizona, had a program in place prior to the passage of Proposition 200 called "Do Drugs, Do Time." According to Vagenas, continued intransigence displayed by the law's opponents in the face of such a report is laughable. "The funny thing is that they had two arguments against us during our campaign to get this passed," Vagenas told The Week Online. "The first was that Proposition 200 would signal the end of civilization as we know it, and the second was that it wasn't needed because we are doing these things anyway. The truth is that this law has done our state a world of good, and that the people of Arizona ought to be commended for seeing through the rhetoric and passing it not once, but twice." Arizona Appelate Court Judge Rudy Gerber, contradicting the Maricopa County Attorney's office, says that "opponents of Proposition 200 said that this was a 'pro-drug' initiative. As it turns out, the Drug Medicalization Act (Prop. 200's title) is doing more to reduce drug use and crime than any other state program -- and saving taxpayer dollars at the same time." Norman Helber, Chief Adult Probation Officer of Maricopa County, said that he believes that the report may have significance far beyond the state's borders. "This report firmly supports a new paradigm of drug control for the nation," he said. Among the report's findings: Cost savings to Arizona taxpayers of over $2.5 million. A total of 2,622 offenders diverted into treatment rather than jail. Over 98% of offenders placed in recommended programs. "All of these factors are resulting in safer communities and more substance abusing probationers in recovery," concludes the report. "The outcome benefits of this intervention over time will reveal not only fiscal and crime reduction benefits, but an increase in the quality of life conditions of this population such as improved family and social relationships, increased work productivity and wages, and decreased health system costs." The treatment funding mandated by the law is responsible for the rate of success in matching people with treatment or education programs. Before the law was passed, 12-step programs had been the only ones available to most offenders, whether they were appropriate or not. According to the report, "the 98.2% matching between recommended and actual placement is remarkable and probably would not have happened without the Drug Treatment and Education Fund." Senator Kyl's office did not respond to requests for comment for this story.http://drcnet.org/index.html Click link for weekly summary of DRC Net's News!
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Post Comment


Name: Optional Password: 
E-Mail: 
Subject: 
Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message]
Link URL: 
Link Title: