Sex And The City actress Cynthia Nixon, who is running for governor of New York, has said she supports the legalisation of marijuana.
The activist said she wants New York to follow the lead of states such as Colorado, Maine and California.
In a video on Twitter, she said: “I believe it’s time for New York to follow the lead of eight other states and DC and legalise recreational marijuana.
A lot of you have been asking about my position on marijuana. Here it is. pic.twitter.com/iEKLHgClFN
— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) April 11, 2018
“There are a lot of good reasons for legalising marijuana but for me it comes down to this – we have to stop putting people of colour in jail for something white people do with impunity.”
She added: “80% of the New Yorkers who are arrested for marijuana are black or Latino, despite the fact that whites and people of colour use marijuana at roughly the same rates.
“The consequences follow people for the rest of their lives making it harder to get jobs or housing and for non citizens putting them in the cross hairs for deportation.
“In addition to ending a key front in the racist war on drugs, regulating and taxing marijuana would generate hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue for our people and create important agricultural opportunities for our state.
Legalized marijuana will also create new agricultural opportunities for New York’s farmers. pic.twitter.com/IOITFJLDLZ
— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) April 11, 2018
“In 2018, in a blue state in New York, marijuana shouldn’t even be an issue, if there was more political courage coming out of Albany we would have done this already.
“The simple truth is for white people the use of marijuana has effectively been legal for a long time, isn’t it time we legalise it for everybody else.”
Nixon announced her candidacy for New York governor in March.