ALBANY TAKES STEP TO REPEAL '70S-ERA DRUG LAWS

ALBANY -- The State Legislature took pivotal steps on Wednesday toward
repealing much of what remains of the state's 1970s-era drug laws,
which have tied judges' hands and required them to impose mandatory
prison terms for many nonviolent drug offenses.

The Assembly approved legislation, 96 to 46, that would restore
judges' discretion in many lower-level drug-possession crimes that are
felonies by eliminating laws that require a prosecutor's consent
before judges can send certain felons to drug treatment instead of
prison.

In addition, the measure would permit about 2,000 prisoners to apply
to have their sentences reduced.

The same bill was introduced on Wednesday in the Senate, where
Democratic leaders vowed to quickly take it up. But the task now
confronting legislative leaders and Gov. David A. Paterson is to
reconcile the Assembly bill -- which is considered the widest-reaching
of the proposals under consideration -- with the governor's plan and
the bill that Senate Democrats expect to pass after amending the
Assembly bill.

Arriving at a proposal that all 32 Senate Democrats can agree on may
prove difficult. "I don't think we have a consensus right now," said
Eric T. Schneiderman of Manhattan, the lead sponsor of the legislation
in the Senate. "But I think we have a better sense of the questions we
need to answer going forward."

Efforts to change the state's drug laws have for years prompted one of
the most divisive debates in Albany. Bills aimed at broadly
overhauling the statutes, known as the Rockefeller drug laws because
Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller championed their approval, have routinely
passed the Democratic-controlled Assembly only to die in the Senate,
which until this year was controlled by Republicans.

With Democrats now in the majority in the Senate and with Mr. Paterson
an avowed champion of repealing the laws, supporters see this year as
offering the best chance to pass a plan that essentially does away
with mandatory sentences for drug crimes.

"I think the stars are aligned," Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the
Assembly, said at a news conference Wednesday morning. "Its time has
come."

Before a three-way compromise can be reached, several elements of the
governor's plan that are not in the Assembly bill need to be
addressed. They include requiring drug offenders to plead guilty as a
condition of being sent to treatment and to be certified as addicted
before they can enter treatment.

Another issue expected to be debated is whether the legislation should
allow current prisoners to apply for resentencing.

The Legislature has already eliminated the stiffest provisions of the
Rockefeller laws, doing away in 2004 with life sentences for drug
crimes and reducing other penalties for the most serious offenses.

But supporters of the Assembly bill believe that their plan is an
opportunity to finish what began in 2004 and fix a policy that they
say singles out minorities.

"It hasn't worked," said Jeffrion L. Aubry, a Democratic assemblyman
from Queens who has led efforts in the Assembly to rewrite drug
sentencing laws. "It's a failed policy that we can no longer sustain."

Those supporting changes said the legislation would give New York an
opportunity to catch up after falling behind states that have greatly
expanded drug treatment programs as alternatives to prison.

"The general theme is states are making greater efforts to divert
people into treatment programs, and they're starting to use prison not
as a first resort but a secondary or last resort," said Gabriel
Sayegh, the director of organizing and policy for the Drug Policy
Alliance Network, a national drug law reform group.

"If the Legislature follows through with moving toward a public health
approach, New York could potentially go from having some of the worst
laws in the country to having some of the best."

District attorneys have expressed concern that the changes would strip
them of an important function as a check against too much judicial
discretion.

"We've achieved a balance where we've preserved public safety and
reduced our prison population," said Michael C. Green, the district
attorney of Monroe County, which includes Rochester. "I look at that
and say, 'Why do we want to take this system and make a seismic
shift?' My fear is that you're going to disturb one of those trends."