To the Editors;

It seems that our elected officials easily weathered the hoopla over
their near dereliction of duty in passing the budget late yet again,
and why not? They do it every year, blame each other, look mildly
contrite, and get re-elected. The real tragedy here is that this year
there were several bills that would have, to varying degrees,
addressed a lynch-pin issue that is responsible for many of the
problems affecting New Yorkers. None of them were voted on in this
past session.

Our politicians' failure to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws costs New
Yorkers far more than the hundreds of millions of our tax money they
earmark for drug-law enforcement and prisons. It creates and feeds a
black market in illegal drugs. Disputes over business in that market,
because it is totally unregulated, are settled by violence. Money to
purchase the drugs at the over-inflated prices caused by their
illegality, is frequently obtained by robbery and theft, and New
Yorkers suffer the consequences.

We are forced to live in unsafe communities while we pay hundreds of
millions of dollars to build and operate prisons to which we send, not
violent predators, but non-violent drug users. There are currently
over 22,300 of them in New York State prisons. Interesting to note, as
well, is that although the average drug user is white, 94% of those in
prison for drug offenses are people of color.

If the politicians think that New Yorkers are happy when we build lots
of prisons and put lots of people in them (which does appear to be the
case), they should consider the euphoria that would occur if we
started putting actual criminals in those cells. Filling the cells
with violent criminals instead of non-violent ones would no doubt
contribute to making our streets SAFER. Now there's an idea!

Lawrence Seguin
ReconsiDer: Forum on Drug Policy
288 Cold Spring Rd.
Lisbon, New York 13658-3208
tel:(315)393-7375 (lkseguin@nothweb.com)