PATAKI FAILURE ON DRUG LAWS IS A SHOCKER

Gov Must Deliver on Vow to Fix Rockefeller Statutes, Say 2 Activists

The Legislature was in and out of Albany yesterday without acting on a
proposal to change New York's irrational Rockefeller drug laws. What's
Gov. Pataki's position on the bill? He's walking away - again - from
his commitment to reform.

There was reason for hope. Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno and
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver had convened abipartisan conference
committee to work out a compromise bill. The public hearings made
itpainfully clear the current mandatory sentencing laws arelegally,
fiscally and morally indefensible.

The laws waste more than $100 million each year - money that could go
a long way to meeting a court order to fund New York City schools.
They tear apart families and communities, yet have not deterred drug
abuse. They are blatantly racist: The majority of people who buy and
sell drugs are white, but 93% of drug offenders in New York prisons
are black or Latino.

Legislatures in Michigan, Maryland, North Dakota, Indiana, Louisiana,
Connecticut and Kansas have repealed or scaled back harsh sentences
for nonviolent drug offenses and provided treatment, training and
rehabilitation as alternatives. In other words, Republicans and
Democrats across the nation have concluded harsh mandatory drug
sentences are a failed policy.

But not New York, which holds the dubious distinction of having the
most regressive and counterproductive drug-sentencing laws in the
country, as documented in a report by state Sen. David Paterson
(D-Manhattan).

There is near total consensus among policymakers, health experts and
criminologists that the 30-year war on drugs has been an abject
failure. Drug use among the young doubled between 1992 and 2000.

The argument for maintaining the status quo - that the Rockefeller
laws protect public safety - is nonsense. The overwhelming majority of
drug offenders in state prisons are there for nonviolent offenses.
Two-thirds have addiction problems. And, according to study by the
Rand Corp., treatment is about 1,500% more effective than
incarceration in preventing drug-related crime.

Failure to reduce the injustice worked by the Rockefeller drug laws -
which is all that the Legislature's compromise bill has proposed -
cannot be justified.

So why is Pataki, who insists he favors reform, walking away from
doing the right thing?