California Attorney General vs. Drug Policy Alliance: A Debate on California's Prop 5

It’s an important issue in California where 12 propositions will appear on the state ballot Tuesday. Proposition 5 or the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act would require the state of California to expand and increase funding and oversight for individualized treatment and rehabilitation programs for nonviolent drug offenders and parolees and reduce criminal consequences of nonviolent drug offenses.

A wide coalition of supporters say it will help reduce overcrowding in the state"s burgeoning prison population–which is the largest in the country. They also argue that it could change the way the war on drugs has been waged domestically by providing treatment rather than jail for non-violent drug offenses.

But the proposition has a number of opponents including five California governors, the California prison guards union, and the National Drug Control Policy Director. They argue that its expensive, sets up an unwieldy and unaccountable bureaucracy, and have called it a “drug dealer’s bill of rights.”

Today we host a debate on California’s proposition 5.

Ethan Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance and Drug Policy Alliance Network, the leading organizations in the United States promoting alternatives to the war on drugs. He supports Proposition 5 and joins me here in the firehouse studio.

We’re joined on the telephone by California Attorney General and former Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. He served as Governor of California from 1974 to 1982 and ran for the Democratic nomination in the 1992 Presidential election, defeating Bill Clinton in five states. Jerry Brown is opposed to Proposition 5.

Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance and Drug Policy Alliance Network, the leading organizations in the United States promoting alternatives to the war on drugs.

Jerry Brown, California state Attorney General and former Oakland Mayor. He served as Governor of California from 1974 to 1982 and ran for the Democratic nomination in the 1992 Presidential election, defeating Bill Clinton in five states.