Winner-Sponsored Bill Makes It Easier To Prosecute Suspected Drug Makers. ALBANY - The state's efforts to control the spread methamphetamine got a boost Tuesday when the Senate passed a pair of bills to toughen penalties for its manufacture. "New York has ... a welcome sign for the producers of methamphetamine," since its penalties are less strict than Pennsylvania, said Sen. George H. Winner Jr., R-Elmira. "We need this legislation to control this scourge." Winner's legislation, which was one of two bills approved Tuesday, makes it easier to prosecute meth lab operations and creates a new felony from the criminal manufacture of meth in or near a home. [continues 366 words]
ALBANY -- Gov. George Pataki and lawmakers Tuesday appeared headed for a showdown on whether New York should allow seriously ill people to use marijuana as a pain reliever. The Legislature's top Republican said he was confident that a bill to allow its use under a doctor's supervision would pass this session. But a spokesman for Pataki's Health Department said patients can get similar relief from other medications. "The Legislature needs to act to enact a medical marijuana law that allows the drug to be used in tightly controlled instances with a doctor's supervision," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County. "I'm confident we can achieve this goal this session." [continues 370 words]
ALBANY -- It was a groundbreaking event that broke little new ground: Democrat and Republican legislators met in public for the first time Wednesday to try to hash out differences over New York's harsh drug-sentencing laws. Reforming the laws has been a goal for the past several years, but until Wednesday all the talks over how to do it took place behind closed doors. Wednesday, 10 lawmakers from the Assembly and Senate discussed their differences for about an hour. The group agreed to meet again today. [continues 300 words]
Bill Seeks Mental-Health Parity ALBANY -- On March 16, 2001, Donna O'Clair of Schenectady went food shopping with one of her sons. When they returned home, she found that her youngest, 12-year-old Timothy, had hanged himself in the closet in his bedroom. Largely because of that incident, state lawmakers are considering approving a sweeping expansion of mental-health services that health-insurance policies have to cover. The bill has already passed the Assembly, and Senate action could come as early as this week. To its supporters, the passage of the bill would end what they see as discrimination against those with mental illness. Treatment of emotional and behavior disorders, as well as drug addiction and alcoholism, would be covered to the same extent as physical problems such as heart attacks and cancer. [continues 854 words]
ALBANY -- After big talk for years about significant revisions in the state's Rockefeller-era drug laws, efforts fizzled last week. The Senate made a last-minute proposal, endorsed by Gov. George E. Pataki, to reduce sentences for a relatively small number of people, but the Assembly rejected that idea. The laws, passed in 1973, mandate harsh sentences for selling as little as two ounces of an illegal drug like marijuana, cocaine or heroin, or possessing as little as four ounces. [continues 657 words]
Reforming Rockefeller-Era Rules Could Ease Prison Crunch ALBANY, N.Y. (January 18, 2001) -- The minimum prison sentence for some drug offenders would be cut nearly in half and judges would receive more discretion in sentencing, under a plan unveiled on Wednesday by Gov. George Pataki to overhaul the state's strict Rockefeller-era drug laws. Pataki's plan would lower the minimum term for possession of 4 ounces or more of narcotics from 15 years to 8 1/3 years. It would also allow those already serving time for those offenses to try to get their sentences cut. [continues 1041 words]
