New York City Mayor Eric Adams was reportedly caught on camera visiting a marijuana dispensary.
A video clip uploaded to Instagram on Sunday (Sept. 7) by user @microxdj showed the 65-year-old mayor and the caption, “Y’all won’t believe who I saw in the dispensary.”
“It smell good in here,” Adams is heard saying.
The video does not make clear where exactly it was filmed or why Adams was there, though the politician appeared to be wearing a wireless microphone clipped to his shirt.
The appearance comes after Adams’ crackdown on illegal cannabis shops.
Last August, Adams stood with the New York City Sheriff’s Office, the New York Police Department, and Department of Consumer and Worker Protection as the city incinerated more than four tons of seized cannabis products.
“Illegal cannabis shops and their products endanger our young people and our quality of life, and that’s why we are padlocking dangerous storefronts and protecting our children, families, and communities from these illegal operators,” Adams said at the time.
“Illegal cannabis [is] nothing like legal cannabis,” he added, before framing the effort as both a public safety measure and a way to ensure legal operators could thrive.
Adams has also been outspoken about marijuana use in public spaces, telling The New York Post's Pod Force One podcast earlier this year, “I think it should be relegated to certain areas that you could smoke marijuana, not throughout the entire street, because you do smell it everywhere.”
He also criticized the state for not imposing restrictions when legalizing cannabis, calling that “one of the negative impacts of our cannabis law that the state government passed.”
The dispensary video surfaced at a politically delicate time for Adams.
NBC New York reports that while he has publicly insisted he is “in this race to win” re-election, sources at a recent closed-door meeting said Adams hinted he might step aside if polling showed it was in the city’s best interest.
“I love the city more than I dislike Andrew [Cuomo],” he reportedly said.
The remark came even as he continued to describe former Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a “snake and a liar” and voiced concerns about his rival, Zohran Mamdani.