A NEW DEAL IN THE DRUG WAR, SORT OF

An Emphasis On Treatment--And The Bad Guys;

NEW YORK--In 1973, when New York State Sen. John Dunne asked for whom
the bell tolls, it tolled for drug offenders. Dunne was fed up with
dopers ruling the city. And he saw the solution in tough sentences
pushed by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller--drug laws that are still the
nation's most punitive. Nearly three decades later, though, the
71-year-old Republican is leading a campaign to reverse these laws.
"We have been left with something that is not only unjust," he says,
"but also horrendously expensive."

Dunne's not alone. In November, voters in California, Colorado,
Nevada, Utah, and Oregon approved ballot initiatives softening drug
laws. The votes came on the heels of a dozen other wins for drug-law
reformers in the past six years. Now law-and-order governors and
legislators in at least four other states, including Connecticut and
New York, are poised to do the same.

What's going on? With drugs cheaper and more plentiful than ever, even
some veteran drug warriors despair over the nation's enforcement-
first policy. In statehouses across the nation, there's a growing
clamor for more emphasis on treatment.

Washington is a different story. On Capitol Hill, stiff prison terms
and interdiction in supplier countries like Colombia are still all the
rage. However, there is talk of change at the White House. Last week,
President George W. Bush made two major drug-policy nominations and
promised an "unwavering commitment" to both curbing supply and
reducing demand for drugs. "A successful antidrug effort," Bush said,
"depends on a thoughtful and integrated approach." More emphasis on
treatment? Maybe. As governor of Texas, Bush focused on incarceration.
His words last week could signal a change, though the two appointees
he announced are both drug-war hawks. John P. Walters, who worked for
Bush's father in the Office of National Drug Control Policy, is slated
to head the office now as the new drug czar. Republican Rep. Asa
Hutchinson of Arkansas, who has been active in drug enforcement policy
(and helped lead the impeachment effort in the House against President
Clinton) is Bush's pick to head the Drug Enforcement
Administration.

Ripple effect. Whichever way Washington goes, the push for a new approach
on drugs is sure to continue in the states. And nowhere is the effort more
focused than in New York. The state's Legislature is expected to pass--and
Gov. George Pataki has said he will sign--some version of legislation watering
down the state's Rockefeller laws. Says Robert Gangi, head of the state's
nonprofit Correctional Association: "True reform in New York would send
ripples across the nation."

It might also mark an end to stories like that of Kevin Muscoreil, one
of the more than 9,000 inmates currently imprisoned under the
Rockefeller laws. A 31-year-old drug addict, Muscoreil is doing 15
years to life for possessing less than 5 ounces of cocaine. If New
York's laws are changed, Muscoreil's tale might be more like Jamell
Galloway's. When Galloway was picked up two years ago on a minor
cocaine-selling charge that skirted the Rockefeller laws, he was sent
to a treatment center in Harlem--not to jail. "It's the first
treatment I've ever gotten," says Galloway, 21, "the first time I've
seen a future."

Reformers love that sort of talk. But experts fear that an increased
emphasis on treatment could fall victim to budget problems. California
expects to begin diverting more than 20,000 drug offenders into
treatment a year, beginning July 1, but critics say there aren't
enough funds or treatment centers to serve them. The New York
legislation, if it passes, would free up as many as 5,500 prison beds
a year. That could result in annual savings of more than $50 million.
But Governor Pataki is mum about whether that money would go to
treatment or where any new money for treatment would come from.

Drug-law reformers say the lack of new money for treatment may be more
inimical to the success of the drug war than any of President Bush's
appointments. It's "the Achilles heel of all these initiatives," says
John Coppola, executive director of the Alcohol and Substance Abuse
Providers of New York. "Without [the money] . . . we will go right
back to locking up drug addicts and throwing away the key."