REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS CLASH ON NEW YORK DRUG LAWS

One of the enduring mysteries here in recent years is why the state
has been unable to overhaul the Rockefeller drug laws, which force
judges to sentence drug offenders to lengthy prison terms that the
three most powerful state officials, Gov. George E. Pataki and the
leaders of both houses of the Legislature, agree are draconian.

Officials came within a hair's breadth of rewriting the laws last
year, only to have the deal dissolve in the middle of the night behind
closed doors.

This week, members of the Republican-controlled Senate and the
Democrat-controlled Assembly began negotiating with each other in
public. Their hearings offered a rare chance to see how the sausage
gets made in Albany. They laid bare some of their many policy and
political differences, and showed why even their broad areas of
agreement might not be enough to bring about change.

The problem boils down to this: The Assembly wants to go much further
than the Senate does in changing the state's drug laws. So Assembly
members fear that if they agree right off the bat to the Senate's
proposals to reduce sentences for the most serious drug offenses,
which would affect only a tiny fraction of the state's inmates, they
will have no leverage left to persuade the Senate to go along with
their own proposals. They want to reduce the sentences for much more
common and less serious drug crimes, and to give judges the authority
to send some drug offenders to treatment centers instead of prison.

At a hearing here on Thursday, the senators tried to persuade the
Assembly members to agree to their proposal on the most serious crimes
first, and debate their differences afterward. Assembly members
countered that they should debate their differences first and agree on
their areas of common ground later. Neither side wanted to budge.

Senator John A. DeFrancisco, a Syracuse Republican, called for
agreeing to some compromises right away. He noted that both sides
wanted to reduce the sentence for the most serious class of nonviolent
drug offenses, which are now punishable by up to life in prison. The
Senate would like to see the sentence reduced to 10 to 20 years in
prison. The Assembly favors 8 to 20.

"Let's do 9 to 20," Senator DeFrancisco suggested, splitting the
difference.

But Assembly members were reluctant to agree formally without some
indication that the Senate would consider its other priorities.

"It is merely setting up what is on the table in real terms, so that
we can know that we're getting something done," said Assemblyman
Jeffrion L. Aubry, a Queens Democrat who is co-chairman of the
conference committee. Senator Dale M. Volker, a Republican from the
Buffalo area who is the other co-chairman of the conference committee,
tried to assure the Democrats that their issues would get a fair
hearing. "We agree to talk about it," he said. "We don't agree to
agree, but we agree to talk about it."

The Democrats said the current policy has created a system in which 93
percent of the inmates serving time on drug charges are black or
Hispanic, despite national studies showing that the majority of drug
users are white. The Republicans spoke of the rights of victims, and
tried to maintain a tough-on-crime stance while agreeing to soften the
most severe drug laws.

Even the makeup of the panel reflected different backgrounds. Three of
the five Republicans are former police officers: Senator Volker,
Senator Martin J. Golden of Brooklyn and Assemblyman David R. Townsend
Jr. of central New York. Assemblyman Aubry, the Democratic
co-chairman, has led a social service agency that provides drug
counseling and has taught inmates at a prison in New Mexico.