A Douglas County judge delayed ruling Monday on whether a man convicted of third-time cocaine possession should be sent to prison for more than 12 years.

Defendant Dezerro D. Smith, 33, Kansas City, Kan., is caught between two versions of state law: the old one, which put nonviolent drug users in prison, and the new one, which requires drug treatment and probation.

“I pray and ask the court to help my addiction, to send me to rehab,” Smith said to Judge Jack Murphy.

Prosecutors in Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney’s office want to put Smith away for the time prescribed under the old law: between 11 1/2 and almost 13 years.

They argue he doesn’t qualify for the drug-treatment law because he was charged in December 2002, before the new law went into effect.

And they say the new law was an effort to manage bed space in prisons — not a philosophical statement.

“It simply came down to prison space,” prosecutor Dan Dunbar said. “It’s not a change in mind-set that drugs are any less dangerous or that people should be held any less accountable for their actions.”

Defense attorney Jessica Kunen said that claim by Dunbar was “without merit” and said lawmakers were interested in treating drug addiction, not just in saving bed space.

Dunbar said the only kind of treatment program he would support for Smith would be one offered in prison by the Department of Corrections, but Kunen said she didn’t think the prisons offered any thorough treatment programs.

“Mr. Smith has never had the benefit of treatment,” she said.

Smith works in construction and has children, he and Kunen told the judge. He has two prior convictions for cocaine possession since 1993, but the only other crime in his past is a DUI, Kunen said.

Murphy said that before he imposed the sentence, he wanted to review the report of a psychologist hired by the state’s indigent-defense board to evaluate Smith. He also asked the attorneys to give him more information about the range of available treatment programs.

He rescheduled the sentencing for 4 p.m. Feb. 10.