VIGIL PROTESTS TOUGH DRUG LAWS

Rockefeller-era mandates fail to deter drug abuse and reduce dealing,
organizers claim

NEW YORK -- Donna Charles was a 27-year-old single mother when she was
offered a job taking care of an elderly woman in Tennessee. A friend
offered to fly her to the state but asked her to carry a package and
deliver it upon arrival.

She did and was caught at the airport with 6 pounds of cocaine for which
she has been serving -- under New York state's tough Rockefeller drug laws
- -- 15 years to life in prison. She is in her seventh year.

Charles' case and others like it were highlighted Friday in Manhattan's
Rockefeller Plaza at what organizers hope will become a weekly vigil to
protest the laws that have landed thousands of nonviolent drug offenders in
state prison cells. Protesters say these cells should be occupied by
violent criminals.

"It's like building cemeteries to solve the AIDS problem,'' said Rudy
Spyser, who stood in the rain with about 24 other people for the vigil.

The vigil was timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the drug laws,
which then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller signed on May 8, 1973. The laws mandate
prison terms of 15 or more years to life in prison for selling 2 ounces or
possessing 4 ounces of a narcotic substance.

When Rockefeller signed the laws, they were considered the strictest in the
country and became a model for other states.

Steven Belenko, senior research associate at the National Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, said the laws have
greatly increased the prison population.

The laws were meant to deter drug use and drug dealing, but no research has
shown they've achieved that goal, Belenko said. "If the goal was to deter
drug use and reduce drug dealing, they don't work.''

The Center on Addiction recently completed a study, "Behind Bars: Substance
Abuse and America's Prison Population,'' which found that 80 percent of
prison and jail inmates are incarcerated for crimes related to drugs or
alcohol. The report also found drug treatment for inmates to be inadequate.

According to a state Correctional Association analysis, one-third of the
state's prison population are drug offenders. Of those roughly 22,670
inmates, about 8,880 prisoners were locked up under the Rockefeller drug laws.

Patrick McCarthy, a spokesman for Gov. George Pataki, said changing the
Rockefeller drug laws was not among the governor's legislative priorities
this session.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski