Pubdate: Wed, 15 Nov 2000
Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Contra Costa Newspapers Inc.
Address: 2640 Shadelands Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94598
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Forum:  Don Thompson, Associated Press
Bookmark: For Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act items:
http://www.mapinc.org/prop36.htm

STATE GETS NEW DRUG CZAR

Counties hint at lawsuit unless Gov. Davis funds drug treatment programs 
authorized by Prop. 36

SACRAMENTO -- Nearly two years after he took office, and days after voters 
approved a sweeping drug treatment initiative, Gov. Gray Davis appointed 
his first director of the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

Meanwhile Tuesday, backers of the Proposition 36 initiative threatened to 
sue Davis if he doesn't immediately release $60 million for drug treatment 
authorized by voters a week ago.

Davis appointed Kathryn Jett to head the department and oversee 
implementation of the ballot measure, which requires the state to treat a 
projected 36,000 drug users each year instead of sending them to prison or 
jail.

"He'd rather make the right choice than the hasty choice," Davis 
spokeswoman Hilary McLean said in explaining the delay in the appointment.

Jett, 47, is director of the attorney general's Crime and Violence 
Prevention Center, and chairs the executive committee of the nonpartisan 
Crime Prevention Coalition of America. Previously she was head of the 
Department of Health Services' Office of Women's Health.

She will be paid $123,255 in her new job. The appointment is subject to 
state Senate confirmation.

Drug treatment providers have complained that a series of acting directors 
left the agency rudderless.

"There's no voice for drug and alcohol programs speaking for the 
administration," William Demers, president of the County Alcohol and Drug 
Program Administrators Association of California, said before Jett's 
appointment. "Without a director, we've gotten no answers from anybody on 
anything from the administration."

That, and a shortfall in treatment funding, helped prompt Prop. 36, said 
campaign manager Dave Fratello of the California Campaign for New Drug 
Policies.

"His inaction or disinterest, or some combination thereof, was why we felt 
we needed to go through the initiative, to kick start the process," 
Fratello said.

Davis' Health and Human Services Agency made sure the department stayed on 
track without a permanent director, responded McLean.

T. Maria Caudill, a department deputy director, said Davis showed his 
commitment by including $18 million for drug courts and $34 million for 
youth treatment and drug prevention programs in this year's budget.

The department's budget has grown from $376.5 million to $526.8 million 
over the past two years, and from $347.7 million five years ago.

However, treatment funding has barely increased under Davis, said Chuck 
Deutschman, who heads Contra Costa County's treatment programs and preceded 
Demers as state association president.

"If you control for inflation, if you control for changing demographics, it 
was really a decrease," Deutschman said.

Fratello threatened legal action if Davis does not immediately release $60 
million into a new Substance Abuse Treatment Trust Fund created by Prop. 36.

The measure specifies that the $60 million should be released "upon passage 
of this act," but McLean, Caudill and a spokesman for Davis' Department of 
Finance said they are reviewing the proposition's requirements as part of 
their preparation of Davis' 2001-02 budget proposals, which will be 
unveiled in January.

"You know how this process works -- he (Davis) doesn't just write a check," 
said McLean.

County probation departments and treatment providers need the money now, 
not in six weeks, as they rush to prepare for the first drug offenders who 
will be sentenced to treatment programs in July, said Fratello.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D