A "quality-of-life" campaign aimed at public marijuana smoking in New York City began in upscale neighborhoods but is now focused on mostly poor or minority communities, Medical News Today reported Aug. 7.

Statistics show that in the early years of the campaign, which started in 1992, arrests for smoking marijuana were scattered across the city, with slightly more busts in neighborhoods like Greenwich Village, Soho, and Washington Heights. By 2003, however, arrests were concentrated in poor areas of the Bronx and Queens as well as more affluent minority communities within the city.

Researchers said that the trend threatens to undermine the campaign and hurt race relations in the city.

The authors suggest that police issue summonses to offenders or tell them to stop smoking and discard their drugs, rather than making an arrest.

The study, funded by the Marijuana Policy Project and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, appears online in the Harm Reduction Journal.