During the 1960s, Green Lantern was on the verge of cancellation, which gave writer Denny O'Neil a great deal of creative freedom when he was assigned the series.

O'Neil recounted that "my journalism background and laid-back social activism had led me to wonder if I couldn't combine those things with what I did for a living.

[3] He responded by pushing for a story dealing with drug addiction, an issue both he and O'Neill had been wanting to tackle, and had encountered firsthand: Adams was chairman of his neighborhood drug rehabilitation center, and O'Neil lived in a neighborhood with a large number of addicts.

"[3] When Adams first drew the cover showing Speedy with heroin paraphernalia, editor Julius Schwartz rejected it, since it would not have been approved by the Comics Code Authority.

O'Neil said that Schwartz "was very supportive" during his run on Green Lantern, and that he found the Comics Code to be his biggest restriction when confronting social issues.

Anyway, the publishers at DC, Marvel and the rest called a meeting, and in three weeks, the Comics Code was completely rewritten.

"[4] O'Neil's original ending to the story had Speedy overcoming his drug habit on his own and reconciling with Green Arrow.

[5] New York Mayor John Lindsay wrote a letter to DC in response to the matter, commending them, which was printed in issue #86.

In 2004, Comic Book Resources author Jonah Weiland called "Snowbirds Don't Fly" the start of an era of socially relevant Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics, a slant which eventually opened up the DC world to other minorities (such as homosexual characters) and climaxed in the character of Mia Dearden, who is not only a victim of child prostitution but also later portrayed as HIV positive.