L.L. 1986/058
Enactment date: 11/24/1986
Int. No. 675-A
By Council Members Crispino, the Vice Chairman (Council Member Vallone), Foster, Spigner and Williams; also Council Members Castaneira-Colon, Dear, DiBrienza, Dryfoos, Eisland, Ferrer, Harrison, Leffler, McCaffrey, Michels, O'Donovan, Povman and Wooten
A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to the creation of a substance abuse task force.
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section one. Legislative findings. In 1978, after the State assumed direct responsibility for contract management, supervision and evaluation of all community-based drug-abuse programs, the city of New York dismantled its addiction services agency. Subsequently, drug and substance abuse programs became decentralized with many city agencies providing a plethora of overlapping substance abuse services. Moreover, despite the existence of several substance abuse services, the number of drug addicts within the city has increased by 50% since 1978 to 675,000.
The recent influx of "crack" has heightened the need for controlling substance abuse. Drugs are destroying city communities, limiting the access of public facilities by city residents, reducing the city's housing stock and generally reducing the level of the quality of life. As the city is forced to devote more and more resources to the war against drug use and provide greater services to drug addicts, the need for coordination from a central body becomes evident.
A task force, headed by the criminal justice coordinator will ensure that city agencies no longer provide a duplication of services and that financial resources are no longer unnecessarily drained. For these reasons, the council hereby declares that a permanent task force be established to foster greater cooperation between the various city agencies in the battle against drug use and in providing drug abuse services.
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[Consolidated provisions are not included in this Appendix A]
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Section three. This local law shall take effect immediately.