“When weed got legal, mushrooms took its place.”
So spoke A, one of the psilocybin salesmen now plaguing Washington Square Park, and you couldn’t ask for a better illustration of the ugly drug dynamic that now dominates in the Big Apple.
That is: Lefty lawmakers push for decriminalization and then legalization of illicit substances.
The resulting small-scale social decay adds to burdens faced by our already overworked law enforcement and other social-service systems.
Progressives then demand more loosening and absurd remedies like “harm reduction” for the consequences of the drug use and addiction they foster.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
It’s just a little weed, whine Democrats (and some Republicans). What’s the harm?
Aside from the fact that new data demonstrates beyond any doubt that cannabis use can cause mental illness in the long run, the harm is precisely what A so helpfully outlined.
Once a city moves the legal goalposts for what counts as an illegal drug, small-time crooks will immediately read this as a cue to take a mile instead of the inch they were offered.
As ex-cop turned John Jay prof Michael Alcazar put it, “This is ‘broken windows’ theory in practice”: “‘Hey, no one’s stopping us, let’s sell other stuff.’”
In other words: Eroding the social fabric further emboldens crooks, big and small alike.
Note that another shroom seller threatened a would-be photographer just for asking about snapping a pic.
No shock that the 6th Precinct, where the park lies, saw a 30% jump in felony assault over the same period last year. Or that total major crimes are on track to top the figure for 2019 by a hideous 29.6%. Or that 70% of New Yorkers don’t feel safe.
The answer to social decay is never to hurry it along. It’s to apply common sense ideas, like putting crooks in jail and drawing clear, stable lines between what’s legal and what’s not.
And while we’re at it, let’s take qualified-immunity lawsuit threats out of the picture for cops, stop hampering prosecutors with insane discovery requirements and let judges set bail for dangerous criminals.
Otherwise? Panic in Needle Park.
