OUTDATED DRUG LAWS

To the Editor:

It is encouraging that 80 percent of New York's Senate and Assembly
candidates who responded to a recent survey support changing the 1973
Rockefeller drug laws (news article, Oct. 31).

Relatively few of the approximately 22,000 narcotics offenders in state
prison today are either drug kingpins or violent criminals. More than 94
percent are people of color, despite research showing that a majority of
drug sellers and users are white.

Research also shows that drug treatment is more successful than
imprisonment in reducing the crime associated with the narcotics trade. The
Rockefeller laws are wasteful, unjust, ineffective and marked by racial
bias. Given the survey results, it is reasonable to ask: will state policy
makers finally muster the political will to reform these outdated laws?

ROBERT GANGI

Executive Director, Correctional Association of New York