CMA recently submitted an amicus brief in a case that will determine the fate of Proposition 36, California’s landmark drug-treatment-instead-of-incarceration initiative. At issue in this case is Senate Bill 1137, signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2006, which would radically change Prop. 36 by allowing judges to incarcerate people who suffer drug relapses during treatment.

Prop. 36, the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act, was approved in 2000 by 61 percent of California voters. It reformed criminal sentencing laws by enrolling most nonviolent drug offenders in community-based treatment programs, rather than jailing them. CMA believes that implementing SB 1137 would impermissibly alter the core medical and public health approach of Prop. 36 and could thwart the effectiveness of rehabilitation and treatment programs favored by California voters when they passed Prop. 36.

SB 1137 would also permit courts, who are not medical professionals, to terminate or interrupt a treatment program due to a participant’s drug relapse. CMA opposed this bill when it was before the Legislature.

In 2006, the trial court invalidated SB 1137 because it both contradicts specific mandates of Prop. 36 and does not further the initiative’s purpose. This case is now before the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco.

Click here to read CMA's brief.

Contact: Long X. Do, 916/551-2556 or ldo@cmanet.org.