IN SWITCH, DEMOCRATS WON'T ACT ON PATAKI PLAN TO EASE DRUG LAWS

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Concerned about appearing soft on crime in the next
election, the Democratic legislative leadership plans to shelve Gov. George
Pataki's proposal to scale back New York's strict drug laws and appears
unwilling to support other such efforts this year.

The Democratic position marks a significant turnabout in the Capitol, where
the party has for years led the crusade against the state's Rockefeller-era
drug laws, only to be accused of coddling criminals by Republicans, who had
previously blocked attempts to change the laws.

The Democrats, who control the Assembly, said they believed that any bid to
weaken the drug laws, among the most stringent in the nation, could backfire
on Democratic lawmakers from more conservative districts, mostly upstate and
in the suburbs of New York City, where crime is a potent issue.

The move is part of an overall strategy by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
to solidify the Democratic majority's moderate credentials.

In recent years, Silver has defied liberal Democrats, many of whom, like
himself, are from New York City, by staking out conservative positions on
issues like crime and welfare, hoping to defuse political attacks by
Republicans. More recently, he brushed aside the protests of New York City
lawmakers and backed the repeal of a city tax on people who commute to work
there.

Silver on Wednesday declined to comment on the drug laws. But Patricia
Lynch, his spokeswoman, said he had no plans to take up the governor's or
any other proposals to overhaul the laws this year because doing so could
place some of his members on the defensive in the 2000 elections.

"At this time, there are no plans by the Assembly leadership to address the
governor's proposal," Ms. Lynch said.

The speaker's stance makes it highly unlikely that any revisions to the drug
laws will occur this year, despite mounting criticism that the laws have
caused New York's prison population to swell with nonviolent, often
first-time, drug offenders who have been subjected to tough mandatory
sentences. The Republicans in the state Senate had indicated that they would
support the governor's proposal.

The Democratic reversal has also further alienated many liberals in the
party who viewed the proposal by the governor, a Republican, as a rare
opening to finally enact some changes to the drug laws after a generation.

"I am trying to convince my own house that this is a unique time," said
Jeffrion Aubry, a Democratic assemblyman from Queens who wants to lessen the
law's sentencing guidelines. "But it's an uphill battle because they're
afraid of the perception that they are being soft on crime."

The position staked out by the speaker even caught a spokesman for the
governor off guard. "That's bizarre," said the spokesman, Michael McKeon,
when asked for a response. He then chided Democrats in the Assembly for
continually refusing to act on criminal justice proposals advanced by the
governor. "They're not doing anything on criminal justice issues, no matter
what it is," he said.

Aides to Silver say that his main criminal justice initiative for the
legislative session is a measure to ban assault weapons and place safety
locks on firearms.

Silver's position on the drug laws has widespread support among suburban and
upstate Democrats who have no great appetite for scaling them back. Naomi
Matusow, a Democratic assemblywoman from Westchester County, expressed deep
misgivings about rushing to overhaul the laws, given the dangers posed by
many drug offenders.

"We're dealing with potentially dangerous situations," she said. "Throwing
out the existing laws seems to me to be very precipitous."

The laws, which were adopted in 1973 under Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, force
judges to comply with rigid sentencing guidelines that require long prison
terms, even for relatively minor drug offenses like possessing a small
quantity of narcotics. For example, a person who is convicted of selling
more than two ounces of cocaine, heroin or other controlled substances -- or
possessing more than four ounces -- must be sentenced to a minimum of 15
years in prison.

The laws have remained largely in place since their enactment, despite
mounting criticism and repeated attempts, mostly by Democrats, to revise
them. The critics have charged, among other things, that the laws have
clogged the state's prisons with drug offenders, many of them nonviolent
addicts, who might be better served in treatment programs or other cheaper
alternatives to prison.

Last year alone, 9,063 people were sent to state prison for drug offenses.
That brought the total number of people serving state prison terms for
nonviolent drug crimes to slightly more than 22,000, or roughly a third of
the total state prison population of 70,000, according to the Correctional
Association of New York, a prison
watchdog group.