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Soros Group Ends Initiative Effort in Florida

April 20, 2002 – The Campaign for New Drug Policies, the organization behind the initiative drive to weaken and ultimately repeal state drug laws, pulled out of Florida Thursday, ending its campaign to place an initiative on the Florida ballot this November.

The initiative, called the "Right to Treatment for Rehabilitation for Non-Violent Offenses," is patterned after California's Proposition 36, which passed in 2000. Since it became effective, Prop 36 has created serious problems for California addicts, their families, and the drug court system the state was developing before the initiative passed.

From 30 percent to 40 percent of offenders fail to show up for treatment, according to the Los Angeles Times. Billed as a program for first and second offenders by initiative sponsors before the election, the newspaper reports that the average Prop 36 participant had been arrested 14 times previously and has an average of 2 felony and 5 misdemeanor convictions. Drug court participation in the state is down 23 percent.

Research shows that drug courts are one of the most effective ways to treat addicts who run afoul of the law. The combination of the court's power to mandate addicts into treatment and ensure that they stay there, or go to jail for the offense they were convicted of, provides long-lasting results with low levels of relapse and recidivism.

The treatment initiative drive seeks to undermine drug courts as well as drug laws, according to internal discussions among initiative sponsors.

The Campaign for New Drug Policies, based in California, is funded by the same three men – George Soros, Peter Lewis, and John Sperling – who financed the medical marijuana initiatives passed by 8 states and the District of Columbia since 1996. They also funded Prop 36 and are sponsoring similar initiatives in Ohio and Michigan this year. Treatment leaders in both states oppose the initiatives.

The Campaign's director, Bill Zimmerman, told a drug legalization conference that the initiative process the group is carrying out is an effort to legalize drugs incrementally.

"Our polling shows that only a small minority of Americans wants to change drug policy. . .20 percent at best when you talk about legalizing drugs," said Zimmerman. So you need to educate them, help them understand that the position they're taking is wrong, ill-informed, misguided, whatever."

The way "to move people where we want them to go," he explained, is to put forward initiatives that "have been crafted by public opinion polling and focus group research so that we know exactly how far people are willing to go." Approaching legalization incrementally works, he added. It allows us "to project that 'we win every time on this issue,'" which is important, he said, "because that puts increasing pressure on the federal government (to repeal the drug laws)."

The director of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association said the Florida initiative is seriously flawed and called the Campaign's pull-out a victory for all Floridians. Press reports say Campaign spokesmen indicate they will try again in Florida in 2004.

Highlights of recent press coverage of Prop 36 include:

1. The LA Times reported in July that an Orange County pilot program experienced a 40% rate of failure to complete treatment. Of more than 700 defendants, 300 "did not complete the treatment because they stopped showing up for meetings, began using drugs again, or were arrested for new drug offenses."
From: "Failure Rate High for Pilot Program in O.C.," Monte Morin, LA Times, July 15, 2001

2. "About 30% of Los Angeles County defendants sentenced to drug rehabilitation rather than prison or county jail under Proposition 36 either failed to show up or dropped out of treatment programs in the first six months the new law was in effect, officials said."

Although "touted as a way to get first- and second-time offenders into treatment, the average participant has been arrested 14 times previously and has two felony and five misdemeanor convictions."

4 of 5 participants are men. More than half are age 36 or older. Racial breakdown is 36% Latino, 30% African American, 30% white, 2% Asian, 2% other.

Drug court participation is down 23%.

From: "Judges Say New Law is Working," Anna Gorman, LA Times, February 5, 2002.

3. A study compiled in October by Healthy Systems Research Inc of Washington, DC found that 7 counties in the state did not plan to drug-test Prop 36 participants. The 12 largest counties with 77% of the state's population expected to send 46,000 people to treatment; the 9 medium-sized counties expected to send 15,000 to treatment, and the smallest expected to send 9,000 to treatment for a total of 70,000 people being diverted to treatment. [The numbers are panning out nowhere near that 9 months into the program.]

From: "Counties Work Around Problems in Drug Treatment Initiative, Report Says," The Associated Press, Don Thompson, October 4, 2001

Other articles:
"You Say You Want A Revolution?" Jonathan Vankin, LA Weekly, July 9, 2001.

"Breaking the Cycle? Prop 36 is Praised Despite Many Drug Users' Failure to Get Treatment," Jim Davis, The Fresno Bee, April 7, 2002.

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