Drug Crimes

The New York State Police now train drug detection dogs to sniff out cocaine, heroin, LSD, MDMA (ecstasy), methamphetamine, and PCP--but not, since mid-2018, marijuana. Once the state legalizes marijuana possession, which is expected to happen within the next year or...

Drug possession is both a state crime (NY PEN §220) and a federal crime (21 U.S.C. 13), but federal penalties tend to be more severe than state penalties for an equivalent offense. In fact, federal laws dictating mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug crimes have...

New Yorkers with leftover prescription drugs will now have safer options for discarding them, thanks to the state’s new Drug Take Back Act that went into effect on January 6, 2019. Lawmakers hope that one effect of this law will be to curtail drug possession crimes...

Drug possession and use crimes remain a major problem for New York City. Some parks in the Bronx are so heavily strewn with used hypodermic needles that the grounds are unsafe for visitors. Heroin addicts can be seen shooting up inside Manhattan subway stations....

New York City arrests for drug crimes involving cannabis will soon be a thing of the past. New York came close to legalizing marijuana use by all adults in 2018 and is expected to complete the process in 2019. One of the first moves in favor of broadly legalizing...