PATAKI PROPOSES REFORMS FOR STRICT N.Y. DRUG LAWS

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. George Pataki released proposals Friday to change
three-decade-old drug laws to allow more addicts to get treatment and to
relax some mandatory sentences.

Pataki said in January that he wanted to ease the state's drug laws,
calling them outdated and saying they didn't address the complexities of
addiction.

The state's drug laws are among the nation's harshest and can bring
mandatory life sentences for possession of relatively small amounts. In the
1970s, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller insisted on their adoption, when drugs
plagued the cities. Pataki's proposals were developed after discussions
with prosecutors, prison reform advocates and others, said Chauncey Parker,
his criminal justice services coordinator.

"We talked with many different people in an effort to truly reach
compromise," Parker said Friday. Draft legislation was sent to Assembly
members, the governor's office said.

The plan would expand categories of offenders who could be referred for
drug treatment, give more leeway to judges when sentencing nonviolent
offenders and reduce sentences in some cases.

Major traffickers or violent offenders would not be eligible for treatment
and could get longer sentences.

The Republican-controlled state Senate endorsed Pataki's proposal as
balancing the need for treatment of addicts with tougher penalties for
hardened criminals.

An Assembly proposal backed by Democrats gives judges more sentencing
discretion than the governor favors and would lessen the power of
prosecutors to block addiction treatment for certain defendants.