Bill de Blasio, the Mayor of New York, has expressed this week his support for marijuana legalization and has said that small businesses should expunge former possession convictions.
“Legalization, done the right way, will marry opportunity with justice,” de Blasio said at a press conference on Thursday.
“We have a chance to create a brand-new industry that will lift up everyday New Yorkers,” he added, “And we have a chance to choke off corporate America in the process and not let them get their greedy hands on this industry here in this state.”
The Mayor announced a report published Thursday by his Task Force on Cannabis Legalization entitled,”A Fair Approach to Marijuana.” It is the product of five months of work by the task force and calls for the city to “right historic wrongs.”
“I say, brothers and sisters, we can’t let big pot in the door to begin with,” the mayor remarked. “The majority of licenses to sell and produce legal weed must go to those whose lives were damaged by illegal weed.”
“In the new law that will be written, let’s automatically expunge past convictions for low-level marijuana crimes,” he said.
