Pubdate: Fri, 09 May 2003 Source: Ithaca Journal, The (NY) Copyright: 2003, The Ithaca Journal Contact: http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/letters.html Website: http://www.theithacajournal.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1098 Author: Deepti Hajela, The Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws) WELL-KNOWN NEW YORKERS DEMANDING ROCKEFELLER LAWS REPEALED NEW YORK -- A group of activists, elected officials and celebrities on Thursday called for the repeal of the state's Rockefeller-era drug laws, demanding Gov. George Pataki and the state Legislature get rid of them by a June 4 deadline. "It is unbelievable that we've allowed it to go on this long," hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons said of the decades-old laws. He was joined at a news conference by well-known figures including Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, former gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo and Democrat presidential hopeful Al Sharpton. The coalition also included former inmates and parents of people incarcerated under the drug laws. Veronica Flournoy, 35, spent eight years in prison after the former user was caught with 4 3/4 ounces of cocaine in 1996. The sentence was a plea bargain down from the 15-year minimum she would have faced if convicted after trial. Now working for an HIV treatment program, she said the laws tore apart her family, sending her children to her mother in Florida, where they still live. "There are loving people in there, there are caring people in there that made a bad choice," she said of the state's drug-convicted prison population. "They're paying for it with their entire lives." The laws, passed in 1973 and 1974 during then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's administration, can subject first-time offenders to 15 years to life in prison if convicted of selling as little as two ounces, or possessing as little as four ounces, of a controlled substance. Opponents say the laws have not helped cut down on drug usage, and disproportionately affect minorities. The news conference was followed by a rally of about 200 people across the street from Pataki's city offices. Coalition members said those actions were only the first steps in a campaign to educate people about the issues concerning the drug laws and to put pressure on officials to repeal them. Organizers said they were confident the laws would be overturned by the June 4 deadline but promised continued rallying and public pressure if they were not. Chauncey Parker, Pataki's director of criminal justice, said the Republican governor had proposed a reform of the system that would lower the minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders and give judges the discretion to send people to rehabilitation instead of prison. But Democrats in the Legislature think his proposals don't go far enough and some prosecutors believe they go too far. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk