The so-called War on Drugs in the 1970s and 1980s aimed for a zero-tolerance approach. But it also led to the incarceration of millions of Black and Latino people across the country, often for nonviolent offenses. While the overall number of cocaine users declined during those years, the amount of drugs consumed stayed the same and the number of teenagers who tried illicit drugs rose, according to one study by the RAND Corporation.
In response, New York passed laws to address civil rights concerns, including one in 2019 that, among other things, significantly increased the amount of paperwork that had to be done after drug arrests, and gave prosecutors a shorter time frame to hand evidence over to the accused.
In 2021, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a law that decriminalized the sale and possession of hypodermic needles, and also expanded the number of crimes in which those charged were eligible for diversion to drug treatment programs instead of prison. It was another signal to law enforcement that while possessing a small quantity of illegal drugs remains a crime — street use, in some ways, had essentially been decriminalized.
State bail reform laws, also passed in 2019, have allowed more people accused of crimes to return to the community shortly after their arrests. Whether this has actually increased crime is not clear, but even so, experts said the police are less likely to act aggressively if they know the people they arrest will be back on the street shortly afterward.
Bridget Brennan, the city’s special narcotics prosecutor, said that while the new laws were intended to reduce overdoses and reverse decades of harsh prison sentences for lower-level offenses, they also had the unintended effect of emboldening drug dealers. She said prosecutors will charge dealers three or four times and they still will not be held on bail.
