When California’s Democratic leadership was in near lockstep against Proposition 36 in November, they were concerned how the prospect of stiffer sentences for repeat drug offenses would lead to more incarceration rather than more treatment.
Now that state voters have resoundingly approved the measure (the California McClatchy Editorial Board was against Prop. 36), the question is whether the Democrats who control the state budget will expand drug treatment services statewide as the better alternative to jail or prison. So far they have shown no interest in doing so.
California’s minority Republican delegation in the Legislature has managed to seize the moral high ground on this issue. It is the Republicans who are now on the side of treatment and the Democrats resisting it.
Opinion
Unless this logjam breaks in the coming months, as the Legislature develops and finally approves a new state budget for the next fiscal year starting July 1, it appears that the Republicans will be the ones squarely in line with the majority of California voters on this issue while the Democrats will have nobody to blame but themselves…