NEW YORK (AP) - The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has a new face for its advertising: Michael Bloomberg.
A $500,000 ad campaign will feature bus shelter signs and telephone booth posters carrying a quote from the New York City mayor, when asked if he had ever smoked marijuana, declaring: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." The ads will be the centerpiece of a NORML campaign to urge the city to stop arresting and jailing people for smoking marijuana.
Bloomberg made the remark to a New York magazine reporter last year before he was elected mayor. He said Monday that the city would continue making such arrests, no matter what he may have said in the past.
"I'm not thrilled they're using my name," he said. "I suppose there's that First Amendment that gets in the way of me stopping it."
The mayor didn't say when he smoked marijuana.
The campaign also will feature radio spots and a full-page ad in The New York Times, but the group did not say if the Bloomberg quote would appear in those.