Legislation to Overhaul Rockefeller Drug Laws Moves Ahead Swiftly

[kpete]

Source: New York Times

Legislation to Overhaul Rockefeller Drug Laws Moves Ahead Swiftly

By JEREMY W. PETERS
Published: February 28, 2009

On a fall afternoon in 2002, the New York City police broke up a protest in front of Gov. George E. Pataki’s office in Midtown Manhattan and hauled a dozen demonstrators away.

The protesters were demanding that Mr. Pataki repeal the state’s 30-year-old drug sentencing laws, widely regarded as the nation’s most unforgiving. One of those placed in plastic handcuffs and carted off to a police station was a state senator named David A. Paterson.

Now, with Mr. Paterson in the governor’s mansion and Democrats in control of both houses of the State Legislature, an aggressive effort is under way to finally dismantle what remains of the stringent 1970s-era drug laws, which imposed stiff mandatory sentences as a way to combat the heroin epidemic then gripping New York City.

The Assembly is expected to pass legislation on Tuesday that would once again give judges the discretion to send those found guilty of having smaller amounts of illegal drugs to substance-abuse treatment instead of prison and allow thousands of inmates convicted of nonviolent drug offenses to apply to have their sentences reduced or commuted.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/nyregion/01rockefeller.html?ref=nyregion

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

1. Wow, I had no idea about Gov Paterson

awesome!

[earcandle]

2. Break open the cell. Let the light shine in.

[babylonsister]

3. Wow. Rec'd! Baby steps. nt

[lonestarnot]

4. Woohoo! A crack in the damn! Keep chipping!

[defendandprotect]

5. Oh, wouldn't it be loverly . . .!!! We need to end this prison industry . . .!!!

[Swagman]

29. you got that right-incarcerating people is big business and profitable

[Life Long Dem]

37. So this will let out all the murderers?

:rofl: okay...

[dorkulon]

6. Lots of good news lately. I don't even know how to react.

I'm still conditioned to expect the worst. Hopefully it'll wear off.

[sendero]

10. I know how you feel..

... maybe there will be a silver lining in the economic debacle.

Maybe some necessary sanity (too costly to keep persecuting victimless crimes) will prevail.

We can hope.

[closeupready]

14. Yeah, seriously. Things have gotten so bad over the course of so many years that

this is like a :wtf: moment in reverse. :rofl:

[shanti]

22. really!

:hi:

[DemoTex]

7. Key words: "Inmates convicted of nonviolent drug offenses."

Every day brings light. Thanks be to God, or whomever.

[Omnibus]

8. The silver lining of the cloud of this depression...

The last depression ended prohibition, and this one will too. We literally can't afford to keep imprisoning people for non-crimes.

[NoSheep]

9. Wow! This is very good news. We're dealing with reasonable people again!

[NNadir]

11. Jeeze. It's way too late to save the lives wasted and lost, but it's at least happening.

It was a crime, simple and pure.

[defendandprotect]

42. Very sad thought there about how very, very long this has been going on --!!!

These laws don't speak for justice, then speak for insanity ---

[Metta]

12. This is way past due.

... breathing a big sigh for those entrapped by those misplaced, draconian laws.

[Baikonour]

13. Anything "Rockefeller" needs to be overhauled. n/t

[loudsue]

32. Amen to that!! David Rockefeller's right wing neocons, for starters.

They've left their stink on this world for a long time.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

18. Nelson Rockefeller died in 1979...

...eom.

[ooglymoogly]

20. well then they should dig the fucker up

or at least everyone should go piss on his grave or moso.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

21. Nelson Rockefeller was cremated...

...his ashes scattered on the Rockefeller estate in Tarrytown, NY.

[ooglymoogly]

23. checkmate nt

[Baby Snooks]

35. The Robin Hoods of America...

The Rockefellers are the patron saints of the American Robin Hoods although in America, they steal from the poor and give to the rich.

Their foundations do make America a better place but when you look at the philantrhopy closely, it makes America a better place for only a few. The rest are ignored.

The draconian drug laws like most other laws are meant to serve two purposes. Ensure law and order and to ensure that minorities are kept in their place. Which in many cases is prison.

The drug war in this country was merely another form of the Rockefeller's belief in eugenics and "eugenics by war."

[aquart]

16. Hallefuckinlujah!

[Union Yes]

17. Are Dems starting to defang Corporate 'Murika?

Think this has nothing to do with the stranglehold like grip that Corporate America has over its population? Think again.

CA fears a repeal of our Draconion drug laws.

Once again, there seems to be a new Dem party emerging. More progressive than before. As a person of Marxist beliefs, I'm actually starting to feel hopeful that the party of old, the Corporate Democrat"ic" party may be a thing of the past.

There may actually be hope.

David Paterson, a man without sight, has a greater vision for his state and country than many that can see. We could learn alot from him.

Kudos to Gov Paterson!

[sasquuatch55]

30. New York State

This is the first GOOD thing he has done for the people.

[ooglymoogly]

19. KR

[inna]

24. KR, totally!! :)

[Proletariatprincess]

25. Gore Vidal wrote that the only thing that could save this dying republic,

was a 30s style depression.
That is the silver lining to this hardship...to finally break the back of corporate America and create a real republic form of government that acts in the public interest. Repealing the repressive racist drug laws are a good first step.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

26. Better late than never.

Can we make it retroactive?

[quidam56]

27. Vick got out of prison due to over crowding and is on home detention,

when are they going to turn loose the ones in prison causing the overcrowding ??????????????

[Initech]

28. Awesome! First Obama announces a pull-out date now this!

End the war! End all motherfucking wars!!!!!

[peacetalksforall]

31. The greatest benefactor of sanity will be the children. Too late for some;

some might have been better off with the grandparents who raised them as far as attemtion and care, but kids should never be the victims of their parents or the punitive policies.

I hope there are distinctions recognized in the degree of drugs - kids can suffer pretty rotten stuff in their lives from the severe and drastic stuff.

[Wizard777]

33. I really love the direction the country is heading on drug issues.

[Zhade]

41. I hear THAT!

:smoke:

[nuxvomica]

34. I have a lot more respect for Paterson now

Not just for this so much as that he took part in the protest during the Pataki era. I wasn't aware of that. These drug laws have been the shame of our otherwise progressive state for too long. I had been hopeful when Pataki was first elected even though he was a Republican because he had actually promised to reform the Rockefeller drug laws during his campagn but after he became governor, of course, the lying bastard did nothing about it.

[Bluenorthwest]

36. Patterson has always been strong on drug policy issues

And those Rockefeller laws do great harm to New York and New Yorkers. Time to join the 21st Century, Empire State!

[lsewpershad]

38. I often wonder

how so few of the rich drug users and pushers ever get caught and, if and when they do get caught how many end up in jail. Guess I must again remind our President and our AG that no one is above the law. I also wonder if a Rocketfella or Potake-it ever smoked or used?

[Maraya1969]

39. Great news!

If our country spent as much money on rehabilitating drug addicts as they do imprisoning them we would witness a great healing. To imprison people for being sick is just wrong.

[Zhade]

40. YES! Justice is coming!

NT!