NEW YORK, NY — New Yorkers won't have any problem lighting up if Miranda gets her way. "Sex and the City" actress and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon on Wednesday called for New York to legalize recreational marijuana to reduce racial inequality and raise millions of tax dollars.

"The simple truth is, for white people, the use of marijuana has effectively been legal for a long time. Isn't it time we legalize it for everybody else?" Nixon said in a campaign video posted online Wednesday.

New York has a medical marijuana program and has decriminalized small amounts of pot, but racial disparities in punishment remain even though white people and people of color use the drug at similar rates.

Some 86 percent of people arrested for marijuana in New York City last year were black or Hispanic, city officials have said. The figure across the state is 80 percent, Nixon said. Legalizing and regulating the drug, as nine other states have, would stop "a key front in the racist war on drugs," generate "hundreds of millions of dollars" in taxes and boost agriculture in New York, Nixon said.

In a veiled shot at Gov. Andrew Cuomo, her primary opponent, Nixon said pot would already be legal if there was "more political courage coming out of Albany." "In 2018, in a blue state like New York, marijuana shouldn't even be an issue," she said.

Cuomo, who is seeking a third term this year, has said the state plans to study the economic, health and criminal-justice impacts that legalizing marijuana could have on New York.

The governor reportedly defended his stance Monday, arguing New York is "ahead" on the issue — despite the fact that pot is already legal elsewhere.