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Bloomberg Against Legalizing Weed Because Today's Herb Is Just Too Heady
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 15, 2013
Modified Feb 15, 2013
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NYC Mayor's Office
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 15, 2013
Modified Feb 15, 2013
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During his weekly WOR Radio show interview this morning, Mayor Bloomberg made it abundantly clear that he is opposed to legalizing marijuana. The Associated Press reports that Bloomberg told host John Gambling he "opposes legalizing marijuana because it's stronger than it used to be. [Bloomberg] added that if marijuana were legal, those dealers would just start selling something else, like cocaine." And we obviously can't legalize coke, either—not when we're finally turning the corner on the War on Drugs.
It's unclear exactly how Bloomberg knows today's weed is so much stronger than the stuff he bought outside that Bachman-Turner Overdrive show in '76. (When he was first running for mayor in 2001, New York asked Bloomberg if he'd ever smoked grass. "You bet I did," Bloomberg replied. "And I enjoyed it.") But today's comment appears to be Bloomberg's way of signaling that he's not getting soft on drugs after announcing yesterday that, starting next month, "anyone presenting an ID and clearing a warrant check will be released directly from the precinct with a desk appearance ticket to return to court."
Bloomberg said yesterday that the change in marijuana possession enforcement—which will bring the NYPD into accordance with current law, finally—will ease congestion in courts and jails. Low-level pot possession is the number one cause of arrest in NYC, making our city the marijuana arrest capital of the world.
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marijuana
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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