That could cause the state's prison admissions for drug offenses to fall for the first time in more than two decades. The funders' political operatives say their private polling tells them initiatives pushing treatment instead of jail can win in all three of the states they are targeting next year. How far ahead even Mr. Nadelmann hesitates to guess. Still, after two decades in which drug abuse was generally met with tougher law enforcement, the debate seems to be swinging toward curbing extreme punishment and identifying effective means of treatment. When President Bush earlier this month nominated as his drug czar the hawkish John P. Walters, he strikingly used the occasion to stress his plan to expand treatment programs, even while reiterating his support for jail time for drug offenders.
Positions long considered untouchable by politicians are suddenly part of the mainstream debate.
New York's Republican governor, George Pataki, in January proposed moderating his state's severe drug-sentencing laws. That prompted Democratic state legislators to push for more-aggressive reductions, and compromise legislation is expected to win approval. In New Mexico, GOP Gov. Gary Johnson is pressing a long-shot campaign for the legalization of marijuana. And Hawaii last year became the first state in which lawmakers, rather than voters, approved the medical use of marijuana. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled earlier this month that the federal prohibition on marijuana doesn't have an exception for medicinal use, but the ruling won't necessarily block states from allowing such use.