DRUG LAW REFORM MEASURE PUSHED

Albany -- Supporters Want Bill On Agenda If Senate, Assembly Talk

If the Assembly joins the Senate in budget discussions, reform of New
York's drug laws might be a key topic.

In campaigning for the Assembly's reform bill, which was introduced
Wednesday, Assembly Corrections Committee Chairman Jeffrion Aubry said
Friday that even though the legislation comes with 12 days remaining in
the session calendar, it should be tied to budget negotiations that will
likely extend beyond the June 20 legislative schedule's end.

Aubry and other drug law reform advocates conducted a telephone news
conference to urge Gov. George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph
Bruno to negotiate the issue.

But a Bruno spokesman questioned the timing of the Assembly plan. ''They
pop a bill three weeks before session is set to end,'' said Chris
McKenna. ''How serious do you think they are?''

McKenna also blasted the Assembly for not showing up for budget talks
called by Bruno the past four weeks.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has refused to negotiate with Bruno
unless Pataki enters the process, too.

Despite the tight timetable, advocates hope state leaders can reach an
accord on reform. ''It's clear that the Assembly took longer than
observers expected and longer than reformers hoped to get a program bill
on the table ... if there's the political will to move the bill, or key
proposals in the bill, it could still happen,'' said Robert Gangi,
executive director of the Corrections Association of New York State.

The Assembly bill, which follows a measure advanced by Pataki in April,
would go further to reduce sentences of drug offenders while giving
those convicted under current laws a chance to gain freedom through drug
treatment. It calls for the Department of Correctional Services to
provide 3,550 beds for treatment of substance abusers and millions of
dollars more for state and community-based addiction programs.

The bill also allows judges to use discretion on several felonies while
increasing penalties for major drug traffickers and those who involve
children in their sales.

John Dunne, a former Republican senator joining Aubry in the reform
campaign, said the Assembly bill prescribes ''realistic change.'' He
particularly applauded provisions that make most low-level sellers, who
often choose crime to support addictions, eligible for alternatives to
prison.

''It's time for the governor and Senate Majority leader to sit down and
negotiate,'' Dunne said.

Deborah Small, director of public policy and community outreach at the
Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, called the Assembly bill ''a
giant leap forward'' by focusing on treatment, although she criticized
its exclusion of anyone convicted of a violent felony from eligibility
for reduced sentences or diversion to treatment programs.

She said courts should be able to consider whether such felons no longer
pose a societal threat. She also complained that drug kingpins could get
life sentences under the Assembly bill, saying such nonviolent offenders
need the potential for leniency, too.