Marijuana Treatment Entries Did Not Decrease After Aggressive Arrest Policies Were Implemented in New York City

In the mid-late 1990s Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Police Chief William Bratton focused on arresting and detaining people for crimes that contributed to a lower "quality-of-life" in New York City. This aggressive arrest policy (AAP) resulted in a record growth in marijuana arrests. In 1992, the number of marijuana arrests was around 5,000. By 2000, the arrest rate hit an all-time high of about 60,000 (the large majority of which were for misdemeanor arrests in both years). 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 paper shows that entries into treatment for marijuana dramatically increased in New York City at the same time as misdemeanor and felony arrests for marijuana also 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 show that policy regimes of increased treatment and increased law enforcement actions can co-exist. The oft-heard phrase "treatment versus law enforcement" may represent a false dichotomy in drug policy analysis.