There’s a good reason some tenants will do anything to avoid getting individual electric meters in their buildings — they’re secretly growing pot, according to Mayor Bloomberg.
“Some buildings they wanted to have separate electric meters in each apartment, rather than one for the whole building and some people go crazy,” the mayor said on his weekly radio show today.
“Why? Because they’re using their big sun lamps and they’re growing marijuana. It would be obvious.”
The mayor got around to discussing the pitfalls of marijuana growth and sales while explaining the city’s new policy of allowing people caught with small quantities of the stuff to get desk appearance tickets rather than being held overnight in jail.
Mayoral aides said sky-high Con Ed bills can be a tip off to a weed-growing operation.
The NYPD secured a search warrant in The Bronx last year by presenting a judge with Con Ed bills that off the charts at a five-floor commercial building. Inside, they spotted 600 marijuana plants churning out 50 pounds of weed a month.
WOR radio host John Gambling asked Bloomberg if the city’s lenient policy was tantamount to condoning marijuana use.
“I don’t know about condoning, but certainly not penalizing too much,” the mayor conceded.
“Reality is small amounts of marijuana, there’s an awful lot of kids that have it. You’re just clogging the courts, you’re clogging the police schedules. They’ve got to do other things.”
But Bloomberg said he’s still against legalizing marijuana.
“No. 1, it’s much more potent than when you and I were teenagers,” he said, without explaining how he knows that. “No. 2, the drug dealers are going to sell something because they’ve got to feed their families. And if there’s no money in marijuana, they’ll start selling harder stuff. And that’s not good.”