Authorities snuffed out a drug group's billboard citing Mayor Michael Bloomberg's previous admission to smoking pot as part of a message urging fewer drug arrests, according to a published report.
The billboard that the Drug Policy Alliance wanted posted on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) declared: "Nearly half of all New Yorkers have tried marijuana - including Mayor Bloomberg. We can't arrest them all but Bloomberg is trying."
The Drug Policy Alliance said advertising company Titan 360 told them the ad was not allowed to run because of politics "from the mayor's office," then said it was against all "personal attacks," reports the New York Daily News.
Director of the Drug Policy Alliance Gabriel Sayegh could not understand why this particular ad would be given the kibosh because signs have invoked Bloomberg's admitted marijuana use in the past. One said that he inhaled and "enjoyed it," reported the News.
“Driving along the BQE you can see ads for alcohol, strip clubs and casinos, but an ad that talks about the Mayor’s record on marijuana arrests in New York is rejected,” Sayegh said in a statement.
“The Mayor’s office had nothing to do with the rejection of the billboard, any charge to the contrary is flatly false,” Bloomberg's spokesman Jason Post told NBCNewYork.com via e-mail.
