Pubdate: Thu, 18 May 2006
Source: Times Union (Albany, NY)
Copyright: 2006 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact: http://www.timesunion.com/forms/emaileditor.asp
Website: http://www.timesunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452
Author: Terry O'Neill
Bookmark: 
http://www.mapinc.org/people/David+Soares 
(David Soares)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm 
(Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: 
http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 
(Rockefeller Drug Laws)

CONFRONT REAL ISSUES FACING LAW ENFORCEMENT

In 2004, when the Legislature and the governor reached agreement on 
incremental reform of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, the associations 
representing police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys and police 
and correction unions were adamantly opposed. Any change in the penal 
consequences of nonviolent drug offenses would put New York right up 
there with Sodom and Gomorrah.

Almost simultaneously, the voters of Albany County, faced with a 
clear choice of candidates for district attorney who represented 
polar opposites on drug policy, rejected the champion of the status 
quo and elected David Soares -- the advocate for rationalization of 
the drug laws.

Soares could just go around talking about reform to sympathetic 
audiences. Instead, he has asserted his leadership -- and the voters' 
mandate -- by hitting the cops over the head. Now that he's got their 
attention, he should seize the opportunity to call that attention to 
a fact that faces every law enforcement executive in the nation.

Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina have forced a fundamental reordering 
of public security priorities. If ever there was a simple economic 
incentive to rethink our reliance on long and expensive prison terms 
for nonviolent drug offenders, it is this. Savings there add to the 
resources available to protect us from terrorism and disaster.

So Soares has apologized to our law enforcement community. Now it's 
time for that community to accept the voters' mandate for change in 
the drug laws and to work together to confront the real issues facing 
law enforcement.

TERRY O'NEILL

Albany
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman