When I was there (in the Seventies) the Berkeley City Council had passed a rule that the police could not enforce any drug laws unless they could show that there was nothing more important they could be doing, like writing parking tickets, otherwise they were subject to discipline. The police got the message and totally stopped enforcing the drug laws.
My first day in Berkeley I walked down Telegraph Avenue and it was like a Bay Area drug supermarket, guys were openly walking up to you all the time asking if you wanted to buy any hash, LSD, heroin, cocaine, etc. Whatever you wanted, it was on sale there. Also walking around were dozens of brain damaged drug addicts. You know, the folks we now euphemistically call “the homeless.” Back then they were just called “street people.”
btt