The Town of Babylon announced this week that marijuana possession charges will no longer be a part of the public nuisance law. The town sees this as another step in the decriminalization of marijuana in New York.
In 1994, the law was adopted to give the town the ability to board up any property that has been the site of multiple arrests of the resident. The town included drug arrests as a means to “effectively deal with the problem of crack houses.”
The public nuisance law is referred to as the “crack house” law.
The new change means marijuana will not be used as a means to target certain properties where substance use is known to happen.
“The goal here is not to board up,” Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer told Newsday. “The goal is to alert them, tell them that we’re not going to tolerate this and give us your game plan and we’ll work with you on resolving it."
Schaffer, who is also chairman of the Suffolk County Democratic Party, said second offences have lowered in the past year. He said warnings given to offenders usually lead to compliance.
However, the town also expanded the public nuisance law to increase the time frame looked at for these arrests from one to two years. That means if multiple arrests are made on the same property during those two years, the town may take action — just not on pot offenses.
The law was created to combat the distribution and sale of illegal substances during the war on drugs. It was rarely used after the crack-cocaine epidemic slowed down.
The law still covers the growing and distribution of marijuana or any illegal/controlled substance.
Qualifying offenses include sex offenses, reckless endangerment, and weapons charges, among other acts. The section for domestic assault charges were amended because of a 2019 state law that protects tenants from losing housing based off of 911 calls. The town encourages people to report domestic violence.