Mike Bloomberg Accuses Ny Politicians of Responsibility For The Disastrous Marijuana Law

Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg said that New York’s marijuana law was a disaster. He blamed state lawmakers for making it as easy to buy an ounce of pot as a slice of pizza, which helped criminals and hurt kids.

Bloomberg, who hasn’t said much about New York since he left City Hall ten years ago, said that the law didn’t do enough to stop criminal activity. As a result, he said, illegal pot shops did well before legal ones were allowed to open.

“The state took so long to set up a licensing system that entrepreneurs had almost two years to set up illegal businesses, which they did,” Bloomberg wrote in his Bloomberg.com column.

He said that the city says there are about 1,500 illegal pot shops in the five boroughs and that many of them openly advertise their illegal sales on the fronts of their stores.

Bloomberg said, “Last year, illegal vendors made about $2 billion in sales across the state. That’s more than Broadway shows.” It’s as easy to get an ounce of pot as it is to get a slice of pizza.”

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He said that it is still against the law to have more than 3 ounces of marijuana, and that having 8 ounces or more is a felony punishable by prison time.

“But you would never know that by looking at all the illegal shops and their signs. “Think about the message it sends to criminals when the government doesn’t do anything about so many illegal stores selling drugs to kids,” Bloomberg said.

He showed that the number of incidents involving drugs and alcohol in the city’s public schools had gone up 29% in the past year.

Bloomberg said, “That’s especially worrying because science has shown over and over again that marijuana is bad for the brains of young people.”

Bloomberg cited a study that said some of the pot weed sold by unlicensed shops was contaminated with things like E. coli and salmonella. They were also worried that fentanyl, which is highly addictive and can kill, could be mixed with illegal marijuana.

The current mayor, Eric Adams, has complained about how easy it is for people to sell drugs illegally. One person selling drugs illegally has a storefront right across from City Hall.

“Voters should demand that New York’s governor and lawmakers take responsibility for this mess and fix it. Every elected official who voted for legalization but won’t fix the problem has, in effect, voted to let illegal stores sell marijuana to kids. “This is shameful, and voters shouldn’t forget it,” the former mayor said.

“What happened in New York should be a warning to the rest of the country… The idea that lawmakers could get more tax money without having to worry about enforcement, health risks, or risks to young people was always a fairy tale. Now that it’s all gone up in smoke, it’s time to get serious about protecting children.”