Comptroller and mayoral candidate John Liu released his plan to legalize and tax marijuana in New York today. The report’s main finding: weed is expensive.
Liu’s campaign estimates that there are 900,000 pot smokers in New York, all of whom are willing to spend around $400 for an ounce of the drug. If the tax were in place, this could result in $400 million of tax revenue for the city — which could be used to lower CUNY tuitions.
There’s no reason for stoners to rejoice yet, though. Liu is a long shot to take the city’s top seat – he was denied public matching funds just last week. And even if he was miraculously elected, he wouldn’t have the power to legalize marijuana in the city. He’d need approval from the state Legislature.
Despite his interest in legalizing pot, Liu says he does not partake in the drug himself. Nor does he understand the tie between weed and skater, a group he’s been linked with since being filmed on a skateboard last weekend.
“I have never accepted that kind of correlation between skaters and this culture that you’re referring to,” Liu told the Observer’s Politiker blog.