When Cynthia Nixon announced she was throwing her hat in the ring to be the next governor of New York, many brushed the Sex in the City star’s political ambitions aside and blamed Donald Trump for encouraging unqualified candidates to run for office.
But after sharing her policies, which explicitly include people of color and takes Black voters seriously, it’s clear the actor is committed to seriously engaging with the issues.
Recently, Nixon shared her views on legalizing marijuana in her state, and while many jurisdictions are considering it, her reasoning for making recreational weed legal is refreshing. In addition to talking up the potential revenue benefits of such a move, Nixon also said legalizing marijuana would put an end to the racist way the current drug laws are enforced.
“There are a lot of good reasons for legalizing marijuana, but for me, it comes down to this: We have to stop putting people of color in jail for something that white people do with impunity,” she said via a video she released on social media.
During the clip, Nixon noted that while Black and white people use marijuana at the same rates, people of color are 4.5 times more likely than their white counterparts to get arrested for the substance, making it virtually legal for one group but not the other.
“The simple truth is, for white people, the use of marijuana has effectively been legal for a long time,” she says. “Isn’t it time we legalize it for everybody else?”
Nixon is running to unseat New York’s current governor, Andrew Cuomo, who recently proposed a study to find out the impact of legalizing marijuana in the state. Though Cuomo once argued that weed was a “gateway drug,” he now believes it’s a topic worth researching.
Currently, recreational marijuana is legal in nine states and the District of Columbia, and medical marijuana is available in 29 states.