Marijuana Treatment and Aggressive Arrest Policies: A Study of New York City

• DOI: 10.3818/JRP.10.1.2008.39
• Published date: 01 June 2008
• Date: 01 June 2008
• Subject Matter: Article

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Kevin A. Sabet

Public Health Solutions, Inc.

National Development and Research Institutes

Bruce D. Johnson

National Development and Research Institutes

* Abstract

In the mid to late 1990s, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Police Chief William Brat-

ton focused on arresting and detaining people for crimes that contributed to a lower

“quality-of-life” in New York City. This aggressive arrest policy resulted in a record

growth in marijuana arrests. In 1992, the number of marijuana arrests was around

5,000. By 2000, arrests hit an all time high of about 60,000 (in both years the large

majority of these arrests were for misdemeanor arrests). Through a triangulation of

data sources, including the Uniform Crime Reports and the Treatment Episode Data

Set from 1992 to 2003, and other published accounts, this study shows that entries

into treatment for

marijuana dramatically increased in New York City at the same time

that misdemeanor

and felony arrests for marijuana rose. While it is unclear if these

arrests caused the treatment increase (vis-à-vis criminal justice referral programs), the

presence of these two phenomena shows that policy regimes of increased treatment

and increased law enforcement actions can coexist. The oft-heard phrase “treatment

versus law enforcement” may represent a false dichotomy in drug policy analysis.

Part of this research was supported by the Behavioral Sciences Training Program of Public

Health Solutions, Inc., NIDA Grant No. T32-DA-O7233. The authors are thankful to the

BST Fellows, Greg Falkin, and Peter Reuter for their helpful comments.

JUSTICE RESEARCH AND POLICY, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2008

© 2008 Justice Research and Statistics Association

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Marijuana Treatment and Aggressive Arrest

Policies: A Study of New York City

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Before 1993, and prior to the election of Rudolph Giuliani as New York’s mayor

and the appointment of William Bratton as police commissioner, the New York

City Police Department (NYPD) operated a policy of “limited marijuana enforce-

ment” for crimes that fell under New York State’s Penal Section 221 (concerning

sale and use of marijuana). Drug enforcement mainly targeted heroin and crack

sellers (Johnson, Golub, Dunlap, Sifaneck, & McCabe, 2006). Additionally, treat-

ment admissions for marijuana as primary drug of abuse were rare (Treatment

Episode Data Set [TEDS], annual).

Beginning in 1994 (and continuing today), Mayor Giuliani and Chief Bratton

instituted an aggressive arrest policy1 that has focused upon “quality-of-life” (QOL)

crimes, which are central to the theory of “broken windows” advanced by James

Wilson and George Kelling in 1982 (Wilson & Kelling, 1982; Kelling & Coles, 1996).

The theory proposes that obvious signs of disorder in public settings, like subway

fare-beating, graff‌iti, loud music in public spaces, excessive loitering, and deteriorat-

ing public spaces, contribute to crime because they signal to would-be criminals that

“no one cares” or “anything goes” (Wilson & Kelling, 1982). Under this aggressive

arrest policy, most QOL offenders, including marijuana smokers and sellers in public

view (henceforth MPV) and, often, persons stopped for non-marijuana QOL-offenses

who were subsequently found to have detectable amounts of marijuana, would be

arrested. Most MPV arrestees underwent a 16- to 36-hour detention process while po-

lice performed the necessary procedures for a thorough background check (Johnson,

Golub, Dunlap, Sifaneck, & McCabe, 2006; Golub, Johnson, & Dunlap, 2007). For

a majority of these marijuana offenders, the hours spent in detention before seeing a

judge was their primary punishment. Some, however, continued through the criminal

justice system (as a result of an incriminating background check, felony charge, etc.).

If police had screened for their drug use, many arrestees might have been assessed as

having a primary marijuana problem (as def‌ined by treatment staff/criminal justice

off‌icials) for which some form of drug treatment might be indicated. Several other

drug enforcement policies (described below) may also have facilitated entry into drug

treatment programs.

1

The focus of this paper is on arrests for Marijuana in Public View (MPV), which is

def‌ined as a B Misdemeanor (221.10) in the New York State Penal Code. The term “ag-

gressive arrest policy” is a descriptive term that is used to characterize the strict procedures

for handling MPV (and other quality-of-life [QOL]) arrestees by the NYPD starting in

1995. This NYPD aggressive arrest policy resulted in large numbers of arrests and deten-

tions that changed during this period (but jail and imprisonment for MPV were rare).

Prior to this degree of aggressiveness, misdemeanors (for most QOL offenses) were given

far more lenient sanctions, like citations and warrants that were rarely pursued. The term

“aggressive arrest policy” is not meant to ascribe a positive or negative connotation; it

is simply a descriptive term. The term can also be used to describe aggressive procedures

directed at persons arrested for a wide range of non-marijuana misdemeanor offenses.