2 ELECTED OFFICIALS, SWIMMING UPSTREAM by George Borrelli
Copyright (c) 1997, The Buffalo News

Buffalo Mayor Masiello and U.S. District Judge John T.
Curtin: Men on a mission.

They're carrying the torch on two unrelated hotbutton
issues, which have triggered lively debate in the Greater
Buffalo area.

They're old recurring problems that almost always evoke
passionate and divergent responses. But they're legitimate
topics of discussion and both Masiello and Curtin deserve a
fair hearing on the causes they have chosen to promote.

Masiello's mission is the most easily defined and easy
to understand aid for his financially beleaguered city.

Judge Curtin recently addressed the subject of drugs and
the government's failure to curb the use and trafficking of
marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other illegal substances.

The mayor has been on a crusade to persuade Erie County
suburbanites to help rescue Buffalo, a city that has seen
its population and tax base whither and now struggles to
stay afloat financially.

Curtin, a senior judge and a former U.S. attorney for
Western New York, stirred community passions this month by
declaring America has lost the war on drugs and should
consider legalizing some narcotics, such as marijuana.

Curtin and Masiello appear to be swimming upstream and
against public opinion in promoting their respective
causes. But they should be commended for raising the
issues, both of which deserve a fair and thorough hearing.
Most politicians and almost all law enforcement officials
oppose the legalization of drugs, warning it would
exacerbate, not lessen, the problem of drug dependency.

But it's hard to challenge Curtin's assertion that the
multibillion dollar war on drugs has failed. And his
call for a serious study of the alternatives can be
justified on social, medical and financial grounds.

Remember, Curtin isn't advocating legalized drugs. He
just wants an indepth look at the alternatives to the
current policies and laws that most objective observers
believe have failed big time.

Curtin, who some critics view as a liberal because of
his role in the Buffalo schools desegregation case, is not
alone in his assessment of the nation's drug policies.

Such wellknown conservatives as William F. Buckley, the
author, columnist and TV commentator, and George Schultz,
secretary of state in the Reagan Administration, have
judged the war on drugs a flop and urged a new
approach, including possible legalization. The most vocal
critics of this new approach are in law enforcement, where
job opportunities have multiplied because of the war on
drugs.

The war has spawned a new industry that produces more
narco cops, prosecutors, judges and corrections officers to
staff the explosion of new prisons being built to house
drug dealers and users.

In New York State alone, the prison population has
skyrocketed to 70,000, nearly six times the number
incarcerated in 1973.

Significantly, about 46 percent of the inmates sent to
state prisons last year were convicted of drug crimes.

And there's no relief in sight. Gov. Pataki wants to add
7,000 doublecell beds to the prison system in 1997, and
projects a need for another 6,000 by the year 2002, all at
a cost of about $ 4 billion.

All Curtin is saying is that there must be a better way
to cope with the drug problem.

Masiello's plea for help from Erie County towns recently
drew a negative letter from a resident of an affluent
suburb who wrote in part: "If Buffalo residents want the
same quality of life as the suburbs, the answer is simple:
Go to work and pay for it."

It's an attitude not uncommon in the suburbs, where
Buffalo's role as the hub of the region is often
unrecognized or erroneously dismissed as unimportant.

The suburban critic, whose surname, like that of this
writer, is ItalianAmerican, forgets that our parents and
grandparents once faced the same despair and lack of
opportunity now prevalent in Buffalo's inner city.

Sure, our antecedents worked hard to rear and educate
their children. But we were helped not only by family, but
by government programs like the G.I. Bill.

Buffalo not only needs but deserves the help of its
suburban neighbors. So do the city's residents. After all,
a rising tide lifts all boats.