NEW YORK'S DRUG LAWS Former Mayor Ed Koch is on the mark in condemning New York State's draconian Rockefeller drug laws ["Let's Give Drug Offenders a Second Chance," Viewpoints, Dec. 8]. These statutes require that anyone, first time or repeat offender, be sentenced to at least 15 years to life for selling two ounces or having four ounces of a narcotic substance. These penalties are much harsher than is often meted out to murders, rapists and even white-collar criminals who have harmed many more people than drug users. More than 22,000 drug offenders, many nonviolent, are now in New York State prisons. Most of those people sentenced for drugs are nonwhite, though studies clearly show that the majority of those using and peddling drugs in New York and the country are white. As with our national war against drugs, New York's drug laws are an abysmal failure. Koch is certainly correct in urging support for the bipartisan Aubry-Volker bills, which would abolish the Rockefeller drug laws and substitute sentencing regulations permitting judicial discretion and, most significantly and wisely, alternatives to prison. Murray Polner Great Neck
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