President Trump has made clear that high among his motivations for slapping tariffs on Canada and Mexico halting the cross-border flow of fentanyl that is “killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens.” As he put in his speech to Congress: “They have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the USA.”
One might think that New York — which, per the most recent full year numbers, claimed the lives of more than 3,000 New York City residents in 2023 should share and endorse his concerns. But the state is actually pursuing a radically different approach to any war on drugs: accepting the inevitably of illegal drug use. Or, put another way, letting drugs win.
It’s impossible to conclude otherwise from a review of the current public service media campaigns and services provided by two key state agencies: the Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) and the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM). Both spend millions to promote the idea of safe use of drugs; neither urges New Yorkers not to start using drugs in the first place.
Among the programs offered by OASAS — the state agency charged with spending incoming hundreds of millions in the national opioid settlement monies — is that called “Always On,” defined as “how to order harm reduction supplies.” The key phrase here: harm reduction, or acquiescence to hard drug use. This is the approach that has given OnPoint NYC East Harlem the “safe injection site,” illegal under federal law, where addicts congregate to use hard drugs under medical supervision.
OASAS has created what amounts to an online version of the same: an online “harm reduction order form,” through which individual New Yorkers can order “FREE HARM REDUCTION SUPPLIES DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR DOOR.” (Caps in the original.) These include “fentanyl test strips, xylazine test strips, and/or naloxone.” The goal here is to test the purity of illegally-obtained drugs — not to discourage their use. The approach is embodied in $13.7 million on media campaigns in 2024, which, per OASAS, includes “prevention, fentanyl awareness, counterfeit pills, and harm reduction services, including how to obtain supplies.”
A similar “safe use” theme is echoed by the state Office of Cannabis Management, which has overseen the chaotic rollout of legal marijuana sales in the state, marked by a slow licensing process and a profusion of illegal outlets. Per the OCM “our statewide public education campaigns, such as ‘Cannabis Conversations,’ have helped educate the public on the legal aspects of cannabis consumption, including who can consume it and where. safety tips for products like edibles and concentrates to targeted advice for specific groups such as older adults, parents, and medical cannabis patients.”
Unmentioned is the increasing evidence of the harmful effects of marijuana use in the first place — even as a boilerplate warning. No media campaigns focus, for instance, on findings published in the American Journal of Psychiatry about the risks for legal adult user, including long-term “cognitive impairment.”
Instead, OCM seems intent on increasing, not decreasing, cannabis use.
There have been paid ads including one urging more New Yorkers to avail themselves of medical marijuana, a “six-figure bilingual digital ad campaign to promote medical cannabis” — based on the view that “marijuana is medicine.” Unmentioned is the fact that, as the Mayo Clinic notes, “the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved the use of cannabis as a treatment for any medical condition.” As to whether medical marijuana is safe, Mayo notes, “more study is needed to answer this question.”
The broader point is this. The state agencies charged with addressing hard drug addiction and the safe use of cannabis are failing to educate the public as to the dangers of drug use. Even a welcome recent addition to the OASAS media campaigns — warning that online gambling can be addictive and harmful — urges only a “pause,” rather than stopping outright.
Indeed, the only public health warning focusing on urging an outright stop to a “drug” use is that focused on tobacco; the state Department of Health devoted $9.5 million to a media campaign toward that goal this year — notwithstanding the fact that only 12% of state residents now smoke cigarettes, and that an all-time low of high school students — 2.1% — now smoke cigarettes. One looks in vain for a campaign theme that could complement that on “harm reduction”: The best way to avoid drug abuse: don’t start.
What were once considered vices to be avoided — drug use and gambling — appear to be with us to stay. That doesn’t mean the state should cheerlead and enable them.
Husock is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.