GOV. WOULD LIGHTEN UP ON ROCKY DRUG LAWS

Gov. Pataki yesterday proposed softening the state's tough Rockefeller drug
laws, saying there are better ways than prison to deal with addicts.

Pataki's plan would cut minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders
nearly in half and give judges more sentencing options. But it would also
increase penalties for major drug dealers.

The mandatory sentence for the harshest of the Rockefeller laws for
possession of 4 ounces and sale of 2 ounces of certain narcotics would drop
from 15 years to life to 81/3 years to life for non-violent offenders under
the proposal.

Pataki said there would also be more opportunities for thousands of
nonviolent drug offenders to skip prison in favor of residential treatment
facilities. He said, 500 current drug-offender inmates would be immediately
eligible to apply for sentence reductions - a number that reform advocates
say is too low.

Meanwhile, the governor, repeatedly mentioning his crime-fighting record,
stressed that the plan would also increase penalties for drug kingpins,
dealers who use minors as sellers, and those who sell illegal narcotics
over the Internet.

"This will allow us to be tougher where it's intelligent to be tougher, yet
will also enhance judicial discretion in dealing with drug cases," Pataki said.

The proposal to rework the 28-year-old drug laws is significantly broader
than one the governor proposed two years ago.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno
said they are open to negotiating an agreement this year. Silver called the
governor's proposal "a step forward, but not a dramatic change."

Many reform activists called Pataki's plan "a starting point that doesn't
go far enough."

But Mayor Giuliani urged the state not to tinker too much with the drug
laws, perhaps just giving judges "a little more" sentencing discretion.