IN NEW YORK, THE WAR CONTINUES

NEW YORK - Before committing the biggest mistake of his life, Anthony
Papa lived with his wife and daughter of seven years and owned a small
radio repair shop in New York. Never had trouble with the law and
enjoy simple things. In 1984 his life took a turn when one of his
fellow bowling team offered him win "easy money" handing an envelope
of cocaine in the city of Mount Vernon in the state of New York, NY
Bronx neighbor. In the beginning Papa dismissed the idea, but it had
economic problems and finally accepted.

When he came to where the delivery would take place, Papa realized
that his game was working as an undercover agent of the police, and
that he had fallen into a routine drugs operation.

Twenty police officers were waiting for him to arrest him for
possession of 127 grams of cocaine, a small amount, but enough to set
up an offense that led directly to a penalty of 15 years in prison.

In 1973, the state's governor, Nelson Rockefeller, had enacted laws
that radically changed the lives of thousands in New York, with 20
million inhabitants, especially the black and Latin America.

The penalty for selling two ounces (56 grams) of heroin, morphine,
opium, cocaine or cannabis or possession of four ounces (113 grams) of
any of these substances became the same as for murder in second grade:
a minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of life
imprisonment.

Rockefeller, businessman, philanthropist and Republican Party member,
was inducted in 1959 and governor enacted the law on May 8, 1973. That
was an era of New York streets packed with heroin and other drugs and
fashion with an abundance of crime and violence.

The legislation, known as the Rockefeller laws, had the stated purpose
of fighting the big bosses of criminal organizations. Became more
severe throughout the country, and New York was soon emulated by other
states.

The country embraced the concept of "war on drugs" that has pervaded
the international law on drugs and has had major political
repercussions, military and social conditions in the Americas.

The most severe of the Rockefeller laws, critics allege, was that the
judges deprived of their freedom of opinion, forcing them to apply
penalties based solely on the quantity of drugs involved, and without
considering any mitigating factor, as the history of the accused Their
role in the offense and the circumstances in which it was committed.
It became irrelevant, for example, if the person had a criminal record
or not.

Rejected the mitigating, the only way to lower a sentence is to
cooperate with the investigation, an option that only those who are
most involved in the criminal organization and therefore have valuable
information to give. Thus, sentences are longer for retail sellers or
for the addicts who sell drugs just to keep consuming.

The current result is about 15,000 inmates in maximum security
prisons, without being shot or drug addiction to cocaine in New York,
alleges the Real Reform New York campaign, which promotes changes to
the Rockefeller laws.

The most affected are the African and Latin Americans, who constitute
92 percent of those convicted under this legislation.

Although the consumption and trafficking of drugs are equally among
the different ethnic communities, there are 11 times more black and
Latino prisoners to white for these crimes.

This is because most of the arrests carried out in poor urban areas
inhabited by these minorities. "This occurs despite the fact that
whites consume more or less the same quantity of drugs than blacks,"
said Papa. Many think that this is due to the U.S. political police.
"The police prefer that prisons are full of nonviolent drug
prisoners," Papa claimed.

In 2004 changes were introduced lukewarm to the rules, reducing the
periods of a few sentences, but that did not change the picture
substantially.

On April 24 this year, Governor David Paterson, Democratic Party,
passed a reform that enabled the courts to consider the role that the
accused had in the crime and refer addicts to rehabilitation centers
rather than prisons.

However, the campaign for a reform of the Rockefeller laws is ongoing
and there are several proposals under study.

"We need more reforms to lift out of jail for people who have been
convicted with lengthy sentences for nonviolent crimes," said Papa.

In United States "more than half a million people in these conditions
and many of them require treatment instead of being locked in a cell,"
he added.

Papa was sentenced to 15 years remain in the maximum security prison
Sing Sing. "That was a horrible nightmare," he recalled. "I did not
know how to survive until the negativity of the prison led me to
discover the art of painting."

That discovery led to some art of his paintings were exhibited at the
Whitney Museum and the Governor George Pataki (1995-2006) was
interested in its history in 1996 and granted early release.

So did Papa prison after 12 years. "When I left there I did not know
what was going to do with my life, so I started to give talks at
universities, among teenagers, and I became an activist," he says.

"We started to organize and explore the streets to pressure, to change
public opinion and ensure that, in turn, politicians wanted to change
the law," he said.

Since experienced prison life and the consequences of an "unjust", has
devoted all his strength to fight against such laws.

Papa is now communications director of the Drug Policy Alliance
non-governmental association and founded New York Mothers of the
Disappeared (Mothers of the Disappeared in New York devoted to
denouncing the "virtual disappearance of prisoners for drugs within
the confines of the prison industrial complex the United States").

He also wrote the book "15 to Life" which will be brought to the
screen by filmmaker Brian Swibel. "I hope it becomes an important film
that criticizes the war against drugs and is a wake-up call to reform
these laws," he said.

Many politicians have spoken on the subject, as the senator from
Virginia, Jim Webb, who not only need to change, but the prolonged
detention of tens of thousands of people has become a "national disgrace."

In contrast, state Sen. Dale Volker felt "terrible" that New York
comes to dismantle the drug laws. "These reforms will allow drug
addicts can teach our children, who can be doctors, teachers, nurses,
exemplified by the legislator in a speech in May.