The wild growing weed in NYC

Up until the 1950’s, NYC had an abundance of wild marijuana plants, with some in Brooklyn growing as high as seven feet tall.

They were all eventually eradicated by the Department of Sanitation, destroying nearly 41,000 pounds of wild weed.

Remember when New York City was covered in weed?

It turns out that even as the city oversaw historic removal efforts in the 1950s, there were already some in government urging swift legislative reform.

This shift in thinking was echoed by State Supreme Court Justice John Murtagh whom rejected punitive solutions to drug problems. He also says that science supports the notion that marijuana is non-addictive and potentially safer than cigarettes.

There was a huge marijuana crackdown in New York in 1951. At the time, weed grew everywhere, with seven foot high plants sprouting in fields from Williamsburg to Cobble Hill to East New York.

In 1951 alone, a division of the Department of Sanitation called the “White Wing Squad” confiscated and destroyed 41,000 pounds of the plant. These photos and corresponding story from the Brooklyn Public Library go a long way to help us understand the marijuana jungle that was New York City in 1951.

In this photo Police Inspector Peter Terranova, commanding officer of the narcotics squad, flanked by Anthony Cristiano, a Department of Sanitation workman, and Frank Creta, general inspector.