To listen to the three people who effectively run state government, this ought to be the year when New York finally reforms the Rockefeller era drug laws.
Put Governor Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver or even Senate Majority Malcolm Smith before a microphone, a camera or two and the right audience, and they'll express their passionate opposition to what amounts to 36 years of failure.
"Few public safety initiatives have failed as badly and for as long as the Rockefeller Drug Laws," Mr. Paterson said in his State of the State speech two months ago.
This week, especially, is the time for the governor to act upon such forceful and unequivocal words. In the Assembly, where Mr. Silver vows to "break this state's addiction to mandatory prison sentences for nonviolent offenders," the membership is ready to pass legislation that would give judges the discretion to send those found guilty of having smaller amounts of illegal drugs to treatment rather than prison and to allow thousands of inmates to seek reduced or commuted sentences.
The Senate, which finally has a leader who supports drug law reform, is expected to consider a bill later this session that also would give judges more discretion in sentencing.
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Their fate is largely in the hands of governor who, as a state senator, used to favor much more sweeping reform. In a radio interview last year, just two months after becoming governor, Mr. Paterson said his opposition to the Rockefeller Drug Laws hadn't changed at all.
So why wouldn't he embrace Mr. Silver's plan? Why wouldn't Mr. Smith support it as well? Some 6,000 or so people could then get the treatment they need more than anything else. All it requires, really, is the leadership that's been absent for so long.
It's long past time to do this.
