P Diddy speaks out against strict drug laws

Sean “P Diddy” Combs has joined fellow rap mogul Russell Simmons and former US housing secretary Andrew Cuomo in calling for New York’s strict drug laws to be the repealed.

“If you are not affected by this law you can’t really even fathom the amount of damage this is doing to somebody’s family, somebody’s mother, somebody’s father, somebody’s child,” Combs said.

“Lives are changed by this law, that if it’s not happening to you or to one of your family members you may not really feel the effect of it.”

The laws, passed in the 1970s, can subject first time offenders to 15 years to life in prison if convicted of selling as little as two ounces, or possessing as little as four ounces, of a controlled substance.

There is a broad consensus that the laws are too harsh, but Governor George Pataki and the state legislature have been unable to agree on how to reform or repeal them.

Joining Simmons, Combs and Cuomo at a news conference at a Manhattan hotel were the Mothers of the New York Disappeared, representing family members of people incarcerated under the laws.