Here’s a way to weed out excessive stop-and-frisk arrests — legalize marijuana, says one Democrat running for mayor.
Sal Albanese, a former city councilman from Brooklyn, recommended legalizing pot so people who are found with small amounts of it during stop-and-frisks won’t be arrested.
“Legalize it, tax it, and regulate it — that’s what I would do as mayor,” Albanese said on MSNBC yesterday morning during a panel with all Democratic mayoral candidates except Christine Quinn, who declined to appear.
He defended stop-and-frisk as “a useful tool that needs to be improved” through police training, more patrol officers and legalizing pot. An Albanese spokesman later told The Post the candidate has never smoked marijuana.
His proposal comes as state lawmakers debate Gov. Cuomo’s proposal to reduce the charge for possession of a small amount of marijuana during stop-and-frisks to cut the number of arrests made.
During the show, Albanese and city Comptroller John Liu trashed Quinn’s recent plan for an inspector general to oversee the NYPD.