DRUG LAWS ON TRIAL

Charges Against A Brooklyn Teen Show The Trap Within The Rockefeller Statutes

In one sense, a Brooklyn teenager faces trial on felony drug charges in
Albany County Family Court. In another sense, though, the draconian
Rockefeller Drug Laws will be on trial. It should provide further evidence
- -- if more is needed -- that reform can't some soon enough.

Whether the Brooklyn teen should even stand trial is open to question. The
police don't think so. He has a below-average IQ and appears
developmentally disabled. Albany County sheriff's investigators said he
appeared confused and disoriented early last month when they arrested him
on charges of carrying 60 packets of heroin concealed in his knapsack. They
suspected then, as now, that he had been recruited by downstate drug
dealers seeking to avoid arrest by using him as a "mule."

But now a psychiatrist's report has found the teen mentally competent to
stand trial on felony drug charges. If convicted, he could be sentenced to
a juvenile facility until he turns 18. The prospect of such a sentence
lends credence to the police theory that the youth was a recruit. The
runners, known as "mules," help dealers avoid arrest and conviction under
the Rockefeller Drug Laws, which carry mandatory 15-years-to-life terms,
with no room for discretion by the sentencing judge. The typical mule is an
addict who is desperate to earn the going fee of $300, or a youngster who,
if caught, will be tried as a juvenile.

When they were passed in 1973, the Rockefeller laws were hailed as a way to
rid New York state of drug crimes and the street violence that frequently
accompanies it. But that never happened, largely because the dealers turned
to low-level runners to suffer the consequences of conviction.

As a result, the state's jail population has soared over the years as more
and more low-level drug criminals, many of them first-time nonviolent
offenders, are sent away for long prison terms. The mandatory sentences,
with no chance for a judge to tailor the punishment to fit the
circumstances of the crime, are cruel enough. But perversely, the
Rockefeller Drug Laws have had the effect of victimizing the desperate by
turning them into easy prey for the drug criminals who should have been
behind bars long ago.

A law so flawed cannot be justified. It's time, past time, for reform.