FIX THE STATE DRUG LAWS NOW

Each year around this time, Gov. George Pataki offers more compelling
evidence why the state's drug laws must change. Yet he and lawmakers can
never break the impasse leading to those changes. It's disgraceful. So,
every year, we have this annual rite of passage -- a chosen few drug
offenders locked up in the state's overcrowded prison are granted clemency
by Pataki. There were three of them this holiday season, including Green
Haven inmate Eric Marsh, who received his degree from Marist College
through a program that has been cut by the state. Deemed a model prisoner,
Marsh also created a program to teach math to other inmates at Green Haven.

Good for him. But what about the 10,000 other inmates who officials like
State Chief Administrative Judge Jonathan Lippman say would be better
served in treatment programs than in jail? Those inmates languish because
the governor and Legislature can't agree on precisely how to loosen the
drug laws, even though they all agree those laws are too stringent and
inflexible.

Marsh's case provides a good example why changes are necessary. Marsh, a
first-time offender, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, the
mandatory punishment for being convicted of selling two ounces of cocaine
or more. Marsh maintains his innocence and refused to plead guilty to a
lesser offense. He was convicted at trial, and, under the Rockefeller drug
laws, the judge could not take into account that it was Marsh's first
conviction. Sentencing someone potentially to life in prison under these
circumstances is crazy. Rapists and those found guilty of manslaughter can
get lighter sentences in New York.

Treatment Often More Effective

Since these drug laws were created in the early 1970s under Gov.
Rockefeller, the state has built 51 prisons, and the number of inmates has
swelled from 12,500 to more than 70,000. Supervised parole and treatment
programs would be a better way to handle thousands of nonviolent drug
offenders. It certainly would be more cost-effective for taxpayers. Drug
treatment can cost less than $15,000 a year for each offender;
incarceration, twice that.

Traditionally, the Democratic-controlled Assembly wants broader reforms
than either the Republican governor or the GOP-controlled Senate are
willing to support. But they all agree on certain revisions, such as doing
away with mandatory minimums -- the excessive sentences given in cases like
Marsh's. Instead, judges should be given far more discretion to decide
appropriate sentences; common sense dictates that whether someone is a
first-time or repeat offender should be taken into account. The state's
drug laws have proven unfair and ineffective. A different approach is
needed. They have debated these injustices for too long. It's time they did
something about them.