Michael Bloomberg, in 2001 (before he was mayor of New York), when asked if he’d ever tried marijuana:

“You bet I did. And I enjoyed it.”

These days, Mayor Bloomberg better watch his back before smoking spliffs on his Upper East Side terrace. He now oversees what the New York Civil Liberties Union describes as a “marijuana arrest crusade,” as the NYPD locks up more than 35,000 people each year for marijuana possession.

Arrests are up elevenfold since the 1990s, even though most people who are arrested aren’t even smoking up at the time. Why would cops do that? According to researchers:

[B]usting pot smokers is a relatively safe and easy way to pad arrest figures, which creates the illusion of productivity, and generate overtime pay, a practice known as “collars for dollars.”

Additionally, studies have shown white kids ages 18 to 25 are the most likely to light up a fat one, but black and Hispanic New Yorkers are arrested three to five times as often for possession. Which might explain why Mayor Bloomberg himself escaped his youth unscathed, hmm?