CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS ATTORNEY GENERAL : Smith Calls for Curbing Pagers, Jailing First-Time Drug Dealers

Democratic state attorney general candidate Arlo Smith on Monday called for a ban on pocket pagers for minors and the creation of a “drug terminator” post in the attorney general’s office as two steps to help fight illicit drug use.

Saying “there are no magic formulas” to combat the drug crisis, Smith, at a sparsely attended Beverly Hills press conference, unveiled what he termed a “practical” six-point plan to confront the situation.

The ban on pagers, Smith said, would hamper drug deliveries by thwarting communications between drug dealers and their messengers. The “drug terminator” would work with federal and local law enforcement agencies to coordinate law enforcement anti-drug efforts, he said.

Smith said he also plans to push for the incarceration of all drug dealers upon their first conviction. The 11-year San Francisco district attorney acknowledged that in counties across California, including his own, most small-time drug dealers receive probation when convicted of their first offense.

Campaign officials for Smith’s rival, Republican Dan Lungren, questioned the San Francisco prosecutor’s crime-fighting prowess.

Pointing out that in 1988, Smith’s office prosecuted about 50% of those arrested for felonies in San Francisco, the Lungren campaign issued a press release stating, “Arlo talks tough during the campaign but fails to follow through.”

Such statistics, Smith said, are “irrelevant (because) any case which is prosecutable, we file on.”

Besides calling for penalties for drug dealers, Lungren, a former five-term congressman, has proposed confiscating the driver’s license of casual drug users. Smith said that he favors “tough programs (for first-time users) which will require them to stay on treatment programs and community service.”

Smith called for expanded treatment programs for drug users and increased drug education programs in schools. If elected, he said he would implement a drug money laundering bill signed into law last weekend that requires merchants in California to report any cash transactions of more than $10,000.