Replaces the words addict and addicts with the words persons with substance use disorder or a variation thereof

• Democratic4
• Republican2

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Nathalia Fernandez says this is needed

The harsh and pejorative term "addict" was entered into New York's laws in 1972 to refer to people suffering primarily from opioid use disorder as an epidemic of heroin dependence swept through poor communities across the United States. In 1973, a year later, the Rockefeller Drug Laws would be enacted, creating a minimum sentence of 15 years to life in prison for possession of two ounces or more of opiates. Richard Nixon was president and had declared a counterproductive and punitive "war on drugs." As a former Nixon aide said, "We knew we couldn't make it ille- gal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." Instead of recognizing that opioid use disorder was a public health crisis, New York's legislators and elected leaders at that time chose the same path: vilifying substance use disorder, associating it with moral degeneracy, and enact- ing harsh laws to punish people suffering from addic tion. Since then, the public understanding of substance use disorder has evolved. While we also pursue legislation to provide medical resources and assistance to people suffering from substance use disorder, fight pharmaceutical corporations that profit from manufacturing addiction to opiates, and eliminate the harsh criminal penalties for people suffering from substance use disorder, we should also update the outdated and punitive terminology of our laws.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.