DRUG REFORM AT LONG LAST

Change is the theme with the Democrats in control, and in Albany,
issues are surfacing that the Republicans had routinely blocked. Gay
marriage is one, but Rockefeller drug law reform is also long overdue.

Governor David Paterson put it succinctly in his State of the State
speech: "Few public safety initiatives have failed as badly and for
as long as the Rockefeller drug laws. These laws did not work when I
was elected senator in 1985, and they do not work today."

This is a call for action and the reformers are mobilizing, telling
the Legislature, "Yes we can."

Drug law changes are certain to be a big issue this year. The Senate
will pursue reform. The Senate committee that oversees criminal law
has a new chair, Eric Schneiderman, a liberal Senator who represents
parts of the Upper West Side, Harlem, and Riverdale. For the first
time in memory, the Codes Committee is led by a legislator who
believes the push for law and order has gone too far. Schneiderman, a
high profile advocate in the drive for drug law reform, is also a
member of the Commission on Sentencing Reform that will make its
recommendations by the end of January. His membership on the
Commission will give him added authority on this issue.

The drive for a new drug policy will be heralded at a high power
conference, New Directions in Drug Policy, on January 22, bringing
together health care professionals, law enforcement leaders, elected
officials, and activists. Drug law reform efforts have often seemed
dominated by celebrities or the families of prisoners, but its
strongest roots are in the public health community. The conference's
conveners are the New York Academy of Medicine and the Drug Policy
Alliance, two organizations that regularly develop scientific and
professional recommendations aimed at swaying policy makers.

The organizers have assembled a grand coalition, including groups
ranging from the State Medical Society and the New York City health
department to community activists such as those from the Drop the
Rock Campaign . The LGBT Community Center is a co-sponsor, as is the
Correctional Association, a prison reform organization that made drug
law reform its top priority. The Black, Hispanic, and Asian Caucus in
the State Legislature and the Positive Health Project are also in the
coalition. The list is long and impressive.

The coalition has an ambitious agenda - they are trying to end "an
over-reliance on criminal justice approaches." The long-standing
conventional wisdom skewed funding toward incarceration and policing,
and shortchanged prevention and treatment. The conveners believe
that this flawed approach has made the problem look intractable, a
self-fulfilling prophecy that prevented significant progress. Their
agenda includes more than repeal; it also proposes a new policy.
Public health approaches used in other cities, such as Vancouver,
will be reviewed. The Drug Policy alliance has boiled down its
thinking to two principles - science and compassion.

The Legislature is on board with the new initiative. The State
Assembly recently convened six committees - Codes, Corrections,
Judiciary, Public Health, Social Services, and Alcoholism and Drug
Abuse - to develop a comprehensive new public health framework.

A simple summary can't do justice to the full range of ideas, but the
public health approach has gone well beyond its justly recognized
first major victory - needle exchange for drug users that has
dramatically cut new HIV infections in that population. Elsewhere,
there are new treatment options that are producing good results.
Along with methadone, heroin users can now take buphenorphine, a drug
that prevents users from feeling "dope sick" when they stop their
daily use. Other programs help stop accidental overdoses, but they
can conflict with current law. One of the most basic rules is don't
rely on the morphine/heroin drugs alone. Friends can help a user
survive an overdose. Yet current law too often disperses drug users,
cutting them off from needed social support.

The bottom line of all the new approaches is the emerging public
health community consensus that with relatively little money compared
to the expense of incarceration, deaths and illness from drug use can
be reduced.

Programs that use harm reduction to help drug users find ways to
avoid danger radically change the relationship between them and
health care workers. A positive relationship emerges that makes it
possible for users to trust in new behaviors and treatment
medications. Implicit in the approach, however, is abandonment of our
current over-reliance on abstinence-only programs.

It's hard to predict the precise course of events in Albany, but the
Legislature's Democrats seem well positioned to deliver on their
long-deferred promise to turn the corner on the failed Rockefeller
drug laws.