SEND DRUG OFFENDERS TO TREATMENT PROGRAMS

Governor Pataki's proposed "modest easing" of the Rockefeller Drug Laws is
certainly a long-overdue step in the right direction ("Pataki unveils a
vision of justice," Times Union, May 4). One appreciates the difficulty of
even the most modest change of course in policy on drug control. Since
Governor Rockefeller's time, it has been cast in the public debate as an
unrelenting criminal catastrophe. The governor is to be complimented for
taking this first step.

There is another legislative initiative in the works that should receive
just as much attention because it so effectively compliments the governor's
proposal.

At the request of the Office of Court Administration, Assembly Assistant
Speaker Edward Griffith has sponsored a bill (A. 8078/S.3518) that would
permit the state comptroller to loan money to OCA to jump-start the
establishment of drug sentencing courts throughout the state.

These courts, which will eventually be funded by the U.S. Department of
Justice, give judges the alternative of sentencing many drug offenders to
mandatory drug-addiction-treatment programs. That option has been sadly
lacking since Governor Rockefeller and President Richard Nixon turned their
backs on it in the early 1970s.

As a longtime student of the war on drugs, I have watched with mixed
emotions as our law-enforcement authorities have grown ever more effective
and efficient at rounding up and arresting low-level drug offenders.

Programs such as the New York State Police Community Narcotics Enforcement
Teams and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Mobile Enforcement
Teams have led the way in this kind of effective street sweeping.

These agencies are to be complimented for their ingenuity and the ethic of
interagency cooperation that have produced these results. But I, for one,
would be far more comfortable with this type of enforcement if the bulk of
the offenders they grab in these flashy operations found themselves
sentenced to a strict and effective treatment program. Mr. Griffith's bill
would help to make that option available sooner rather than later.