CAREFUL WITH DRUG LAWS

In the 26 years before Bob Carney became district attorney, there
were just two murder convictions in Schenectady County. In the 12
years since he took over, Carney says, there have been 47 such
convictions, 25 of them "completely drug-related."

The big surge of crime in Schenectady was in the early 1990s, and it
turned around after the massive coordinated arrests of drug dealers
and other criminals in Operation Crackdown, in November 1993. But the
illegal drug trade is still closely tied to other crimes in
Schenectady and across the state. According to Carney and his fellow
members of the New York State District Attorneys Association, the
1973 Rockefeller drug laws have provided law enforcement with a
crucial tool in controlling and reducing crime across the state over
the past decade.

Even the district attorneys, however, acknowledge there is a case to
be made for some reforms to mitigate the harshness of the Rockefeller
laws, notably the current minimum 15-year sentence for Class A-1 drug
felonies. And judges should be given more discretion in special
cases. But the wholesale dismantling of the Rockefeller laws, as
proposed by the Assembly leadership, would result in "a dramatic
reduction in our ability to deal with violent crime," according to
John Tunney, president of the District Attorneys Association.

That's because drug criminals tend to commit other crimes, such as
robbery and homicide, and to associate with each other. The
Rockefeller laws give prosecutors the leverage to find out crucial
information that enables them to make cases against violent
criminals, and keep the streets of cities like Schenectady safer than
they would otherwise be. Carney is a Democrat, as are the Assembly
leaders, but he calls their proposal "ludicrous."

The DAs agree, as do most observers, that more money for drug
treatment would be useful. But most addicts only enter treatment if
compelled to, e.g. by the threat of prison. And what Carney fears
now, after Sept. 11, is a budget-driven "reform" bill, which would
keep addicts out of prison without putting more of them into
treatment. That would likely lead to higher crime rates.