Topeka ? A new law requiring treatment rather than prison for some drug offenders takes effect Saturday amid misgivings in some communities about whether treatment programs are equipped to handle a possible influx of offenders.

The law, signed in April, is designed to divert first-time offenders convicted of simple drug possession from prison, slowing the growth of the state’s inmate population. Supporters of the law also believe that treatment programs are a more effective way of dealing with such offenders.

“I’m really energized by this,” Patricia Biggs, executive director of the Kansas Sentencing Commission, told The Topeka Capital-Journal. “I think it’s a great step forward to try to get people reintegrated into law-abiding community behavior, and it gives offenders a chance to get out of that cycle of addiction.”

But some local officials were scrambling this week, still awaiting state approval of their programs, with employees still in training for a state-mandated curriculum for treating drug offenders.

“It’s kind of a work in progress,” Brad Wedel, interim director of Reno County Community Corrections, told The Hutchinson News.

Money also is a concern. The current state budget contains $5.7 million for treatment programs, when most estimates put their cost at between $9 million and $11 million annually.

“The underlying spirit of what the Legislature did is good,” said Sen. David Adkins, R-Leawood. “There are more productive ways to deal with drug offenders than incarcerating them. We’ve taken that step, but we’ve refused to swallow the bitter pill of providing enough resources.”

Local officials wonder how many offenders they will see and when.

“I think that if this is a situation where we have 25 people walk in the door the first day, we’re in trouble,” Wedel said. “If they trickle in one or two at a time, we can make an adjustment.”

Ron Eisenbarth, owner and director of Eisenbarth & Associates, a treatment center in Topeka, said: “I don’t think anybody is for sure on how quick these people are going to hit the system.”

Treatment centers that have opted to participate in the program must be certified by the state, which includes a license from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

Gary Lee, chief of recovery services at Valeo Behavioral Health Care, of Topeka, said many of the staff members previously had dealt with community corrections programs.

“This is not a new program for us,” he said. “It’s a new way to look at the population.”

Driving the changes were concerns about the prison population, with the average cost of incarcerating an inmate $20,000 a year, compared with between $4,200 and $4,600 a year for providing a drug treatment program.

“All these drug offenders really are going to prison for a short amount of time, and they’re all going to come home anyway,” said Barry Billings, deputy director of Shawnee County Community Corrections. “So when these offenders are incarcerated they may be out of circulation for a brief period of time, but they come right back and they’re certainly no better. They may be worse.”