DRUG-LAW REFORM SOUGHT

Jan Warren knows the weight of the Rockefeller-era drug laws.

In 1986, she was a 35-year-old mother, pregnant and living in Bergen
County, N.J., with a man who wanted neither marriage nor fatherhood.

When her cousin called from Batavia, N.Y., asking if she wanted to
sell drugs, Warren figured one sale could net her enough to move to
California with her teen-age daughter. Instead, she was arrested. In
1987, Warren was sentenced to 15 years to life.

She served 12 years at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility before Gov.
George Pataki granted her clemency at the end of 1999.

Yesterday, in Mount Vernon City Hall, Warren said she understood that
she deserved punishment.

"But 15 years of my life - and 15 years of my 15-year-old daughter's
life - is too much," she said.

Mayor Ernest Davis joined the call yesterday to end the Rockefeller
drug laws, which opponents say are too harsh, imposing long sentences
for first-time offenders.

"In some instances, they spend more time in jail than some of the most
violent of our criminals," Davis said.

There has been talk about reforming the laws, but they have been
changed only once, in 1979, to reduce penalties for marijuana-related
offenses, the New York Civil Liberties Union said.

"What these laws do is rip apart families and waste an extraordinary
amount of money," Robert Perry, legislative director of the NYCLU,
said at the conference.

The laws were passed by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller in 1973. They impose
mandatory minimum prison sentences, including a term of 15 years to
life for anyone convicted of selling at least 2 ounces or possessing
at least 4 ounces of heroin, cocaine or other drugs, the NYCLU said.

Michael Blain, director of public policy for the Drug Policy Alliance
of Manhattan, said New York is behind the times. Last year, 27 states
adjusted their drug-sentencing laws, he said.

Blain said he spoke recently with Sen. Joseph Bruno, R-Rensselaer
County, state Senate majority leader, who told him there would be a
deal on the reforms by Tuesday.

Bruno spokesman Mark Hansen said the senator and other legislators are
working on a deal but have still not settled on some aspects, such as
treatment for drug addiction.

Pataki's office issued a statement saying that he has "made reform a
key legislative priority and sought to enact just and balanced drug
laws."

But advocates for doing away with the laws said reform efforts have
fallen short. Eventually, they want the laws repealed, Blain said.

His group and other opponents of the laws said they will continue
lobbying for change until they reach their goal.

"What we don't get this year, we need next year," he said. "And what
we don't get next year, we need the year after."