PRO-MARIJUANA GROUP MAKES BLOOMBERG ITS POSTER BOY

NEW YORK (AP) - A pro-marijuana organization announced Monday that it will
unveil a $500,000 ad campaign this week featuring Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg as a proponent of pot.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws campaign will
feature bus shelter signs and telephone booth posters with a quote from
Bloomberg, when asked if he had ever smoked marijuana, declaring: "You bet
I did. And I enjoyed it."

Bloomberg made the remark to a New York magazine reporter last year before
he was elected mayor.

The Washington, D.C.-based pro-marijuana group is using Bloomberg as the
centerpiece of its campaign to urge the city to stop arresting and jailing
people busted for smoking marijuana.

On Monday, Bloomberg said the city would continue making such arrests - no
matter what he may have said in the past.

The marijuana group's ad 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.