Off the street and into “the cut”: Deterrence and displacement in NYC's quality of life marijuana policing

Abstract

This paper examines the accounts of NYC marijuana smokers about the information and values underlying decisions about where to smoke. We do so to assess the deterrent value of NYC's “quality of life” policing of marijuana in public view. Participants indicated a general awareness of escalated marijuana policing and its attendant risks and almost universally spoke of avoiding public use in high-traffic locations and in the city's cultural and commercial centres. Beyond that, however, the deterrent value of aggressive marijuana policing appears limited. Individuals without access to private space reported outdoor marijuana use as a normalized peer group activity that has increasingly been displaced to marginal and interstitial public spaces that were collectively referred to by participants as “the cut.”