Alan Johnson, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH (Tuesday, May 16, 2006) -- Four years after raising $1 million to defeat a constitutional amendment proposing treatment instead of jail for some drug offenders, Gov. Bob Taft unveiled a pilot project yesterday that would do much the same thing in Franklin and five other counties.

The idea Taft once called "seductive, deceptive and dangerous" was hailed by him yesterday as a program to "help individuals to assume a productive role in society rather than a long-term member of Ohio's prison system."

There are key differences, mainly in scope, between Issue 1 - trounced by a ratio of 2-to-1 by Ohio voters in 2002 - and Taft's program.

While Issue 1 applied to most low-level, nonviolent drug offenders, Taft's one-year pilot program is modestly funded at $2.5 million and is limited to juveniles or adults who have children and earn no more than twice the federal poverty level. However, that restriction is linked to recipients of federal welfare money, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Still, the programs' similarities struck Ed Orlett, the Ohio representative for the Drug Policy Alliance, the group that backed the 2002 amendment. "In spite of the mean-spirited opposition he offered to our statewide drug-treatment issue in 2002, we believe in redemption for anyone, including Gov. Taft," Orlett said.

Orlett said the pilot program is "a very small step in the right direction," but is "sadly lacking" because it will not apply to the majority of drug offenders: adults with no children.

In 2000, California passed a program of treatment instead of imprisonment similar to the one Ohioans defeated. Since then, it has diverted 140,000 people to treatment and saved California taxpayers nearly $1 billion, Orlett said.

Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said that "Issue 1 was flawed and full of loopholes. The devil was in the details."

The governor and his wife, Hope, campaigned vigorously against the issue, in part, Rickel said, because it would have undermined the state's network of 65 drug courts and might have allowed some offenders to escape jail who should have been imprisoned.

In addition to Franklin County, the program would be tried in Allen, Hamilton, Mahoning, Richland and Washington counties.

It first must be approved by the state Controlling Board. The money is to come from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, with treatment offered by the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services.

Individual counties will decide which offenders qualify for the pilot program. Those who complete treatment might be rewarded by having their criminal record cleared or their records sealed.

The defeat in Ohio in 2002 was a turning point in a highpowered, high-cost campaign driven by three businessmen - George Soros, an international philanthropist; Peter B. Lewis, head of Progressive Insurance of Mayfield Heights; and John Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix.

Before the loss in Ohio, the campaign was able to get amendments passed in 17 of 19 other states.

The group has since refocused its efforts on the medical-marijuana issue, Orlett said.

ajohnson@dispatch.com

Newshawk: Michael (www.ohiopatient.net)
Pubdate: Tue, 16 May 2006
Source: The Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Author: Alan Johnson
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