ALBANY – The changes to the Rockefeller drug laws approved by the Legislature this week were similar to those on the table 18 months ago when hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons came close to brokering reforms of the mandatory drug-sentencing statutes.

In fact, proponents of reforming the drug laws probably could have had the legislation approved this week several years ago. Or something very much like it. The measure’s most dramatic changes concern the infamous A-1 and A-2 provisions that date back to 1973 and the near-hysteria former Nelson Rockefeller, the former governor, felt at the burgeoning heroin trade in the state’s inner cities. Offenders in those categories face prison sentences of up to life for possessing and selling relatively small amounts of narcotics, even without accompanying convictions for violent crimes.

For many years, if not decades, no one in Albany has seriously disputed that a maximum life sentence for drug possession is not excessive. Killers, rapists, sex offenders, and career criminals all routinely receive shorter potential terms in prison. Plus, the harsh sentencing statutes never seemed to appreciably hamper the trafficking, use of drugs, or the distribution of new and highly addictive substances that have appeared since Mr. Rockefeller left office in 1974.

For years, reform advocates have tried to hold out for sweeping changes in other mandatory drug-sentencing categories. That’s what the debate over Rockefeller drug laws has really been about.

In particular, the Class B felony of the sentencing laws and the sentence of four-and-a-half to nine years in prison that nonviolent offenders must serve has been the real target of reform proponents.