Politics of Drug Reform

To the Editor:

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's announcement that no proposal to
reform the Rockefeller drug laws will be heard by the New York State
Legislature for the next 18 months is politics at its worst (front
page, May 20).

Mr. Silver's fear that legislators who support changing these drug
laws would be considered "soft on crime" is unfounded.

In a recent poll of New York State registered voters by Zogby
International, a majority of voters (64 percent) said they would not
consider a state legislator who supports reducing prison terms for
drug offenders "soft on crime." Fifty-one percent said they were more
likely to vote for a state legislator who favored a bill to reduce
some drug sentences -- twice the number who said that they would be
less likely to vote for a state legislator who favored such a measure.

HOLLY CATANIA
New York, May 21, 1999
The writer is a senior research associate at the Lindesmith Center.