cannabisnews.com: Cuomo Boldly Takes on Drug Laws Cuomo Boldly Takes on Drug Laws Posted by CN Staff on August 08, 2002 at 09:31:25 PT By Juan Gonzalez Source: New York Daily News Until now, the race for governor has been a boring affair, with few voters paying much attention, and Gov. Pataki far ahead in the polls. But Andrew Cuomo shook things up yesterday.He did it by displaying something very rare in Albany politics - some guts. Cuomo became the first major candidate for statewide office in 30 years to call for total repeal of the 1973 Rockefeller drug laws. Those are the mandatory-sentencing requirements that have filled our state prisons with thousands of low-level, nonviolent drug offenders.During an East Harlem press conference, Cuomo called the laws a "social injustice" and a "waste of taxpayer money." He noted that 90% of those sentenced under the Rockefeller laws are black or Hispanic. He urged "not just reform, but the repeal of the mandatory minimums" and called for the "restoring of judicial discretion in sentencing."He also conceded, when a reporter asked, that he had smoked marijuana when he was young - just as Pataki did.Cuomo said all this while standing between Jan Warner and Anthony Papa, two people who were sentenced to 15-year-to-life sentences under the Rockefeller laws in the late 1980s, then pardoned by Pataki in recent years.The call for repeal was a bold move by the brash, young Cuomo, one that immediately sets him apart from both Republican Pataki and Carl McCall, his rival for the Democratic nomination. Limited reforms In black and Latino neighborhoods across the state, thousands of mothers, wives and children have seen their families torn apart by the Rockefeller laws. They've seen relatives sent upstate for too long just for being caught with a few ounces of cocaine. They've seen some killers and rapists do less prison time.Sure, Pataki and McCall both backed separate, milder versions of drug law reform, but even those proposals failed when Democratic and Republican legislators couldn't resolve their differences. Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/8706p-8168c.htmlSource: New York Daily News (NY)Author: Juan GonzalezPublished: August 7, 2002Copyright: 2002 Daily News, L.P.Website: http://www.nydailynews.com/Contact: voicers edit.nydailynews.comRelated Articles:Cuomo Urges Repeal of Rockefeller Drug Laws http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13645.shtmlThe Ruinous Drug Lawshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13470.shtmlPataki Drops the Ball on Drug-Law Reform http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13290.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #2 posted by eco-man on August 08, 2002 at 11:35:25 PT Mothers of the Disappeared kick butt of Pataki. As I said previously, the "Mothers of the Disappeared" campaign is a powerful multicity campaign. It is making Drug Warrior politicians (especially Republicans) fear for their political careers. Here are some excerpts below from the August 5 2002 Salon.com article. The full article is archived here: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1452/a09.htm----Excerpts begin-----NOELLE BUSH GETS REHAB, THE POOR AND BLACK GET HARD TIME "... 'Noelle Bush forges a prescription and goes to rehab,' says Teresa Aviles, a 54-year-old Bronx police clerk whose son, Isidro, died of an untreated, undiagnosed illness after serving eight years of a 27-year federal prison term. 'If that was my daughter, she would have gotten a mandatory five-year sentence.' ... "Beginning on Mother's Day 1998, small groups started gathering for weekly vigils in front of Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan, carrying pictures of the men they'd lost. They took the name Mothers of the Disappeared from the Argentinian organization that protested state terror in the 1970s. ..."But of all the people doing time in New York on drug charges, only about 590 of them are A-1s, so [Republican] Pataki's bill wouldn't have remedied the plight of thousands of other prisoners. "Almost all of the women at the meeting were relatives of A-1 felons. Parker told them they'd have their relatives back by the Fourth of July if only they'd pressure the Assembly to pass it. "They said no. "Instead, the group told Pataki, they wanted to see thousands of prisoners freed, to get rid of mandatory minimums, to streamline the process for resentencing, and to expand drug-treatment options. They didn't want to divide what's become the most vital civil rights movement in decades. ... "As Papa says, a few years ago it would have been a 'political death' for a candidate to advocate freeing felons from prison in an election year. 'We put a human face on the issue and showed all these people rotting away because of these draconian laws,' he says. 'We changed public opinion so politicians were not afraid anymore to get involved.' ... "At the June meeting, Pataki tried to convince the Mothers to accept partial change now and more reform later, telling them to prod the Assembly to 'pass the A-1 law and have hundreds of people out in a matter of days.' But they were persuaded otherwise by Silver, who insists, 'If [Pataki] was successful in just doing the limited A-1 bill, he would have the sound bite he was looking for to say he reformed the Rockefeller law, and there would never be further reform.' ..."In another year, it may be too late. Deborah Small, director of public policy for the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit drug-law reform group funded by George Soros, fears that if reform doesn't come before November, it won't come at all. Pataki's pledge to reform the drug laws has become a major campaign issue, especially in the minority neighborhoods that most drug inmates come from. The issue is especially critical in the Latino community, where the Drug Policy Alliance has been running Spanish language ads. Right now, Pataki has an interest in appealing to that growing constituency; he seems to have written off blacks." ----Excerpts end----------------------Please distribute. This message is archived at the MMM (Million Marijuana March) Cannabis Action email list and public archive. HUNDREDS, AND POSSIBLY THOUSANDS, OF NON-SUBSCRIBERS READ THE ARCHIVED MESSAGES. The archive has been linked to from many places (such as Dana Beal's many email compilations). These newer Yahoo Groups allow longer titles (68 characters versus around 45 characters in the older Yahoo Groups) in the archive index, and so the newer archives now have lists of titles that are easier to scan for interesting list messages. Move old Yahoo Groups to new Yahoo Groups!!! MMM archive: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cannabisaction [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on August 08, 2002 at 09:46:17 PT Cuomo should kiss Gore on the lips now Maybe drug reform courage is communicable between Democrats.It would be nice if Gore or some other major Dem would catch it from Cuomo.Maybe they don't have to kiss, maybe sharing a wine glass would be enough. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment