“I already have parolees living within 30 feet of me,” said longtime Newport Beach resident Barbara Roy, who lives next door to the drug rehabilitation home Narconon. “I feel this poses a threat to our public safety.”
The Nov. 4 statewide ballot measure would broaden the scope of Proposition 36, passed by California voters in 2000. Proposition 36 allowed nonviolent drug offenders to attend treatment in lieu of incarceration. Proposition 5 would expand drug treatment programs for inmates to ease the state’s overcrowded prison system, reduce some penalties for marijuana possession and reform parole laws.
Nancy Clark, of the Newport-based addiction treatment center Nancy Clark & Associates, asked the council to reconsider passing the resolution.
Proposition 5 would prevent crime in the community by rehabilitating drug addicts, she said.
“I have had an opportunity to work with thousands and thousands of people, and [addiction] is an epidemic,” Clark said. “I don’t feel that the council should be having a position on this ... please consider there is more information to be had.”
Nancy Clark & Associates is the only rehabilitation facility in area that receives Proposition 36 funding for alternative sentencing programs, Clark said.
Many Balboa Peninsula residents and rehabilitation home activists have claimed that Newport’s many sober-living homes draw convicted criminals to the area through state alternative sentencing programs.
Clark’s clients come from within the community, and don’t move to Newport from other areas for treatment, she said.
“They are trying to change their lives, but they come from here,” Clark said.
