The New York Times - November 17, 1985
Jane Gross

The judge - Francis T. Murphy Jr., the presiding justice of the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court's First Department - chastised Mr. Meese for saying recently that heroin-producing countries should be denied economic aid only "as a last resort."

Justice Murphy, whose department covers Manhattan and the Bronx, made his remarks Wednesday night in a speech at the Plaza Hotel to the Bronx County Bar Association.

Mr. Meese, the nation's leading law-enforcement official, has aroused unusual debate in judicial circles during his first eight months in office. In a speech Friday, he argued that many judges were reading the Constitution too broadly and were engaging in "chameleon jurisprudence, changing color and form in each era."

In the last month two United States Supreme Court Justices, William J. Brennan and John Paul Stevens, have publicly faulted Mr. Meese's interpretation of the Constitution.

Heroin and AIDS

The issues pressed by Justice Murphy were more local: the influx of heroin into New York City and the relationship between AIDS and intravenous drug use.

Experts estimate that there are 200,000 addicts - or 1 in 40 residents -in New York City. Drug use accounts for nearly a third of the local cases of AIDS.

Justice Murphy, speaking of Mr. Meese, said: "Does he mean that, when 1 out of 30, or 1 out of 20, or 1 out of 10 residents of this city is an AIDS-infected addict, the United States military and economic aid will be stopped? How many white coffins of AIDS-infected children must be carried over the city's roads and bridges to cemeteries before we reach the Attorney General's point of last resort?"

Mr. Meese's remarks were made during an appearance in September before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he was reporting as the chairman of the National Drug Enforcement Policy Board, which fashions and supervises drug policy for the Reagan Administration.

Mr. Meese told the committee that the availability and use of cocaine remained widespread, but that marijuana and heroin were declining in popularity.

The Attorney General spoke of increased Federal law-enforcement and diplomatic efforts directed at drug-producing countries, but added that "the only way we will ultimately be successful in the war against drugs is to curb the demand for them."

Asked under what circumstances he would favor cutting off foreign aid, Mr. Meese said he would support such punitive actions "as a last resort."

Supply and Demand

Terry Eastland, a Justice Department spokesman, said the Attorney General had never specified the point at which aid to drug-exporting nations should be interrupted. "We're interested in the whole question of dealing with the supply of drugs any way we can," Mr. Eastland said, "but we're also interested in the demand side."

Justice Murphy, in an interview before his speech, said: "I don't think it's simplistic to say, 'Let's stop it at the source.' The Federal Government has the remedies, but has consistently refused to employ them - whether because of foreign policy or economics, I don't know the answer."

Justice Murphy repeated his longstanding complaint that "we don't own the parks or the streets the way we used to," and noted that drug abuse recently claimed a new category of victims.

"It breeds the suffering of poor people, who are the addicts," he said, "and it breeds the suffering of the victims of their crimes. But now it's been compounded, because we've added the terror of AIDS on top of that."

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, cripples the body's ability to fight disease, leaving it susceptible to such illnesses as cancer and pneumonia.

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