Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is now supporting decriminalizing marijuana possession.
The former New York City Mayor, has been given backlash for being dismissive over marijuana legislation and has even said legalization was “perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done” at one point. He also said it “doesn’t make any sense at all.”
It was in 2011 that he opposed a NY state bill that aimed to treat low-level possession with a court summons and fine instead of prison time.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg now backs states’ rights to end prohibition without federal intervention.
“He believes no one should have their life ruined by getting arrested for possession, and, as a part of his reform efforts that drove incarceration down by 40 percent, he worked to get New York State laws changed to end low-level possession arrests,” a spokesman told WSJ. “He believes in decriminalization and doesn’t believe the federal government should interfere with states that have already legalized.”
