DEFRANCISCO PROPOSES DRUG DEALER LIABILITY ACT

Three years after he enlisted the help of "Archie Bunker," state Sen. John
DeFrancisco has steered a bill through the Legislature subjecting drug
dealers to civil lawsuits.

The measure, on its way to Gov. George Pataki, allows the families,
employers and insurers of drug users to sue dealers for money damages.

And the damages could include a dealer's legally obtained assets as well as
those acquired through illegal drug dealing.

Illegal drug users could also sue, provided they turn over information to
law enforcement and stop using drugs at least six months before filing suit.

DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, acknowledged that the "drug dealer liability act"
isn't as tough as the bill he proposed in 1997 because he had to compromise
with Assembly Democrats.

He said the bill on its way to the governor includes more difficult
standards of proof than the one he introduced three years ago with the actor
Carroll O'Connor joining by telephone to endorse the measure.

O'Connor's son, Hugh, died in a drug-related suicide in 1995.

"Using these deadly drugs must come under fire," O'Connor, who played the
curmudgeon Archie Bunker in the 1970s sitcom "All in the Family," said in
1997 from his California home during a news conference DeFrancisco held at
the state Capitol. "We're supposed to be fighting a war against drugs."