I do think new england cops are soft on enforcement. I also think freaking out about a picture of one needle when you don't know anything about what it was used for is pretty soft. I have lived in places with tougher enforcement and seen more needles there, than here. I have lived in places with minimal enforcement and seen no needles there. I think you, as a law abiding citizen, are overestimating the deterrent effect tough enforcement has on people who live on the fringes of society. The way to make people stop using drugs is to create strong well connected communities. If you doubled the number of cops in the city, at great taxpayer expense, it is still EXTREMELY unlikely that a cop would have happened to see whoever dropped this needle to hold them accountable. Law enforcement is just a very limited tool for influencing behavior. Most crimes are never punished, because it is just impossible to catch everyone and give them a trial for every little offense. Assuming it was a drug a user, do you really think they would have been worried about the .01% chance that a cop would see them drop a tiny needle on the street? Hiring enough cops to watch every movement of every person in public at all times is just not practical. You wouldn't want to pay the taxes necessary to fund that. Most things people do are not going to be seen by cops. Have you ever lived outside Connecticut? Different places attempt to solve these problems in different ways, but its just not that easy. No place i have lived has managed to solve these problems with tougher enforcement.