THE REPUBLICAN SHIFT ON DRUG LAWS

Joseph Bruno, the State Senate majority leader, said this month that he
supports giving judges more discretion in sentencing drug offenders.

That is a political breakthrough for New York's Republican Senate, which
has been opposed to revising the stringent drug laws created in the
Rockefeller era. Sheldon Silver, the Democratic Assembly Speaker, should
seize on Mr. Bruno's overture to push for reforms that would relieve
pressure on the prison system by making the drug laws more rational and
flexible.

This spring Gov. George Pataki proposed minor changes to the law to allow
some people convicted of drug possession to appeal mandatory 15-year
sentences. His proposal was far too limited and, worse, he linked that
proposal with a plan to end parole for all nonviolent offenders, an idea
that many Democrats oppose.

Although the Democrats have long championed reform of the state's rigid
drug laws, Mr. Silver refused even to debate the Governor's plan, perhaps
fearing that his party would again be attacked by Republicans for being
soft on crime.

This fear seems groundless now that the Senate's Republican leader himself
has suggested that revisions in the drug laws might be in order.

New York's drug sentencing laws make little distinction between drug
kingpins and minor drug offenders.

State prisons are now filled with more than 22,000 drug offenders, many of
whom could be rehabilitated through drug treatment for far less than the
$30,000 a year required to keep an inmate locked up. Mr. Bruno has not
offered a specific plan, but his interest in giving judges greater
flexibility in determining sentences is promising.

The Democrats, who have been leaders on this issue, should now rejoin the
debate, challenging the Republicans to work with them on meaningful reform.