A week after telling two interviewers her support for legalizing recreational use of marijuana in New York was revenue-based, Democratic candidate for governor Cynthia Nixon said Wednesday that it's now foremost a racial justice issue for her.
The "Sex and the City" star posted a 90-second video on YouTube in which she stated that it's time New York joined eight other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing recreational use of marijuana.
Nixon goes on to say 80 percent of the New Yorkers arrested for marijuana are black or Latino. Nixon added that legalizing pot use for non-medical reasons would end "a key front in the racist war on drugs" and generate hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue for the state through legal marijuana sales.
According to 2017 statistics compiled by the state, blacks accounted for 48 percent of arrests for fifth-degree marijuana possession, while Latinos accounted for 38 percent, compared to 9 percent for whites.
© 2018 AP
