In news that will shock absolutely no one who understands the concept of a court order, a New Haven smoke shop named Anesthesia Smoke and Convenience has been permanently knocked out cold by the state of Connecticut.
It turns out that when Attorney General William Tong explicitly tells you to stop peddling black-market weed, he actually means it. Back in 2024, Tong’s office first sued shop owner Fadhl Shaif after unannounced inspections revealed thousands of bootleg products sitting on Chapel Street shelves without so much as a whisper of a state cannabis license. The state offered a generous slap on the wrist at the time—a settlement cutting his fine in half on the simple, reasonable condition that he stop selling illicit weed and send in routine compliance reports.
Naturally, Shaif treated those terms as gentle suggestions. Not only did the shop skip the mandatory homework, but when state consumer protection agents and New Haven police dropped in for follow-up visits, they were greeted by hundreds of fresh illegal cannabis products lining the shelves.
Having thoroughly exhausted the state’s patience, Tong hauled the business back into court on contempt charges. Under the new final settlement, Anesthesia is shuttered for good, Shaif is on the hook for a cool $100,000 penalty, and he is officially barred from owning or operating any business in the state of Connecticut ever again. Should he decide to test his luck one more time, another $125,000 fine is waiting in the wings to remind him that the regulated market always wins the rematch.
Dabbin-Dad Newsroom
