DRUG LAW DEBACLE

A Conference Committee Reaches a Dead End in a Long Overdue Attempt To
Agree on Reform

State lawmakers appear on the verge of once again walking away from a
long overdue reform of the harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws. This is
shameful and cruel, and the Senate's leaders must bear full blame for
becoming an obstacle to progress.

For seven years the Legislature has failed to reach an accord on a
more just and humane system of punishment for those who sell or buy
drugs. This year, there was hope that reform would be achieved. Those
hopes were buoyed when the Senate and Assembly took the rare step of
trying to reach an agreement in an open conference committee.
Advocates for drug law reform, which include nearly everyone except
the state's prosecutors, were heartened.

But on Monday, those hopes appeared dashed when senators on the
conference committee walked away without reaching an agreement with
their Assembly counterparts and without any further public meetings on
the agenda. The talk is that the Senate will continue its
deliberations behind closed doors and likely pass a measure later this
month. But without the Assembly on board, the one-house bill will be
meaningless.

The impasse comes down to this: Senate negotiators favor reducing
sentences for the most major drug offenses, which are now punishable
by mandatory terms of up to life in prison. Assembly negotiators want
more liberal sentencing guidelines to extend beyond that, down to
low-level offenses. And, most importantly, they want judges to have
the discretion to send offenders to treatment programs rather than
prison.

The Assembly's position is a blueprint for genuine reform. Under the
Rockefeller statutes, even first-time offenders can face a prison term
of 15 years to life for selling as little as four ounces of a
controlled substance. Drug users are also liable for long prison
terms, even though most experts on addiction agree that they can be
better rehabilitated through treatment programs.

Reform also would save taxpayers money and ease the strain on the
state budget. One watchdog group, the Correctional Association of New
York, estimates that overhauling drug laws could save some $250
million a year, based on a $60,000 annual cost to keep a single
offender behind bars.

Those costs must be weighed against the demonstrated failure of the
Rockefeller statutes over the last three decades. They have never
stopped drug crime in New York, as originally intended. Instead drug
kingpins avoid justice by using youngsters to ply their trade, and
then suffer the consequences if they are caught. Drug users,
meanwhile, aren't helped by a system that leaves no room for treatment
as an alternative to jail.

The only staunch defenders of these draconian laws are the state's
district attorneys, who use them to wring plea bargains from suspects.
But what a huge cost New York is paying for that kind of strong-arm
law enforcement -- a cost that must be measured not only in dollars
but in far too many shattered lives as well.