EFFORT TO EASE DRUG LAWS STALLS IN ALBANY

Efforts to reach a deal to relax New York's drug sentencing laws have
stalled, leaving some proponents worried that no revisions will be made
this summer.

In January, Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, threw his weight behind
the idea of easing the laws, which mandate long prison sentences for drug
felons, including many low-level street dealers and addicts. The Assembly
speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Democrat, soon did the same. And advocates on
both sides of the issue predicted that a consensus would be reached during
the 2001 legislative session.

But no substantive discussions have begun among the governor and the two
men who control the State Legislature. Not even closed-door negotiations --
where legislative compromises are usually reached -- have gotten under way,
according to aides to the lawmakers, as well as state officials and
advocates who have a stake in the legislation.

All sides blame the state budget impasse -- and the resulting tensions in
Albany these days -- for the lack of talks on drug laws.

Differences between Republicans and Democrats on the drug laws are extreme.
Chief among them is what to do about the biggest chunk of serious drug
felons in the system. Last year, these so-called Class B felons made up
more than 28 percent of all those imprisoned on drug felonies.

The Assembly proposal would hand judges the discretion to decide whether to
send these felons to prison or to treatment. The governor's proposal would
require judges to get the prosecutors' permission. Under the current
mandatory sentencing system, judges have virtually no authority over
sentencing; they are bound by the weight of the drugs seized and the
defendant's felony record. Only prosecutors can decide who can be sent to
treatment instead of prison.

With barely a week left until the official close of the legislative
session, neither side is ready to sound the death knell on drug law changes.

Still, among those who have spent years agitating for change, the optimism
of early spring has dimmed.

"There's no forward motion," said John R. Dunne, who served in the State
Senate as a Republican and now lobbies to loosen the mandatory sentencing
laws. "Staking out a position is one thing. Following up and acting on it
is what's needed for real leadership."

Mr. Dunne places that onus on the Democratic leadership of the Assembly.
"It needs more than a nudge," he said. "It needs a very strong
demonstration of real support."

For their part, the Assembly Democrats, whose 80-page bill was introduced
just three weeks ago and has yet to come to the floor for a vote, remain
upbeat.

On a measure as highly charged as this, they say, negotiations cannot begin
until meaningful budget talks are under way, and budget talks at the moment
are at a standstill.

"There are a number of pieces of legislation that must be done," Mr. Silver
said in an interview yesterday, rattling off other unresolved measures,
from energy to campaign finance reform. "I am as optimistic we will achieve
something."

This is the first year that Mr. Silver, a Manhattan Democrat straddling the
demands of his largely white Democratic colleagues from upstate and his
black and Latino colleagues from New York City, has endorsed amending the
laws. And he did so after the governor promised change.

"Why would someone expect this would be resolved fast?" asked Jeffrion L.
Aubry, a Queens assemblyman and an early crusader for changing the
Rockefeller-era drug laws. "All the players are out. They have positions.
They're public on where they stand. In the history of Rockefeller, that's
been the biggest part of the battle. That's how you begin negotiations."

Assembly Democrats predicted that discussions would begin soon between key
aides to Mr. Silver, Mr. Pataki and the Senate majority leader, Joseph L.
Bruno, a Republican. A spokesman said that Mr. Bruno remained concerned
about tinkering with the sentencing rules but favored allocating more money
for drug treatment.

A spokesman for the governor, Michael McKeon, said yesterday that
administration officials were open to negotiations, though not to some of
the Assembly provisions. "We do have some concerns, significant concerns,
with the bill, particularly its failure to provide a meaningful voice to
district attorneys on diversion decisions," Mr. McKeon said. "Nevertheless,
we remain willing and interested in working together in good faith. We're
always hopeful."

A report released last week by the Legal Action Center, an advocacy group
that favors loosening the drug laws, pointed to the stark contrast between
the Republican and Democratic bills.

Judges would have sole authority to send 14 times as many drug felons to
treatment under the Assembly bill as they would under the governor's, the
report concluded. However, as the governor's aides pointed out, the report
did not count in its figures those who could be diverted with the
prosecutors' consent.

The other vital issue is money. The Assembly proposal includes $55 million
for treatment slots in prison. The governor's proposal allocates no
treatment dollars, figuring that treatment slots would be paid for through
savings in the prison budget. A Senate proposal allocates $30 million for
treatment slots controlled by prosecutors.

There are other differences. The Assembly proposes much lower sentences on
each class of felony, for instance, while the governor's bill piles on
stiff new penalties for marijuana sales -- but there is likely to be far
greater flexibility on these issues.

In any event, people on all sides of the drug war divide wondered aloud how
and when any discussion of the differences might start.

"Everyone is so far apart in terms of their approach to the problem, it's
going to take a great deal of effort to bring the parties together," said
Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney. Prosecutors across the
state are the most powerful backers of the present drug laws. Very few
low-level dealers and addicts are sentenced to long prison terms, they
contend, and many of those have past felonies. The prosecutors say they are
best equipped to decide who should go into treatment, and they have spent
the last several months cautioning lawmakers against making drastic changes.

"Do I think it's dead?" Mr. Brown mused aloud. "I don't see any real level
of communication at the present time."

One criminal justice official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, for
fear of influencing the direction of future talks, said that while he was
fairly confident a couple of months ago that the drug laws would be amended
this year, his confidence waned in the last few weeks. "I don't believe
this is being seriously discussed," he said. "I don't see it going
anywhere. It needs a spark."