Drug Reform Initiatives Receive Support of Voters

Gun control groups brought the measures directly to the ballot after the legislatures in Colorado and Oregon narrowly failed to pass a similar requirement for background checks. And this time, they even outspent the NRA in making their case to voters. They also won the support of Arizona Sen. John McCain (R). Gun control advocates called the passage of the two measures in western states that have large numbers of hunters, sportsmen and gun enthusiasts a tremendous boost to their cause nationally.

Jonathan Cowan, president of the group Americans for Gun Safety, called the ballot victories "a clear message to policymakers across the country that the debate on guns has changed dramatically."

On other social issues, such as extending gay rights, voters around the country showed a more conservative mind-set. In Nevada and Nebraska, they supported initiatives banning gay marriage, just as voters did in California earlier this year. In Maine, a ballot measure that would have provided a specific protection against discrimination for gays narrowly failed.

Also in Maine, voters rejected an initiative that would have made the state the second in the nation (after Oregon) to legalize physician-assisted suicide.

One of the most symbolic measures appeared in Alabama, where voters agreed to rewrite the state constitution to overturn a 1901 prohibition against marriages between blacks and whites. The repeal of the interracial marriage ban won with 60 percent of the vote, which was a far less resounding victory than many had hoped for.

The law on the books barring interracial marriage in Alabama was unenforceable and had been overruled by Supreme Court decisions, but it was still contained in the Alabama Constitution.

And then there were the drug reform initiatives. A trio of multimillionaire businessmen led by international financier George Soros spent more than $6 million to win approval of five of six measures they backed around the country.

In addition to the winning measure that requires treatment and not jail time for drug possessors in California, the use of "medical marijuana" was approved by voters in Nevada and Colorado, while measures to make it more difficult for police to acquire and use the proceeds of drug-related forfeitures passed in Oregon and Utah.

Another drug reform effort failed in Massachusetts, however. And an attempt to completely legalize marijuana in Alaska failed by a large margin. That measure was not part of the Soros package of legislation.

Whether the rest of nation follows California's lead in social policy is unknown. But what is clear is that a tough-on-crime state, with the largest per capita prison population in the world, has reached a turning point in its approach to illegal drugs.

The measure, approved by some 60 percent of the electorate, is expected to save the state as much as $150 million a year in incarceration costs, and might even allow California to forgo building another $500 million prison in the near future.

The treatment measure was opposed by prosecutors, prison guards and White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey, who argued that taking away the threat of jail time robbed addicts of an important incentive to clean up.

The wins for drug reform follow a consistent string of victories for Soros and his partners--John Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix, and auto insurer Peter Lewis. Since 1996, they have won drug reform measures in nine states and the District.