LOS ANGELES : Edelman Gives $40,000 to Start Drug Program

Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman has donated the final funds necessary to launch a program that will offer treatment instead of jail to some nonviolent drug offenders.

The program, which officials said signals a shift from an emphasis on incarceration, was supposed to begin last month at the Downtown Hall of Justice. But after that building was severely damaged by the Northridge earthquake, officials found themselves short of funds to relocate the program to a county-owned building across from Union Station.

That is when Edelman stepped in and contributed $40,000 from his office discretionary funds--enough to pay the electricity bill and other operating costs at the new site for a year.

Now scheduled to begin at the end of April, the program is based on the Drug Court, developed with the support of U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno when she was Miami’s chief prosecutor. For people arrested for the first time on felony drug possession charges, it will offer the option of enrolling in a treatment program with regular testing, job training and acupuncture to curb addiction and job rehabilitation.