STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — New York’s legal weed industry has struggled to get off the ground, while illegal shops have flourished, but a new piece of state legislation aims to change that.
Assemblywoman Jennifer Rajkumar (D-Queens) introduced the legislation Friday that would give localities more power to crackdown on illegal shops.
Rajkumar estimated there are 1,500 illegal smoke shops in the five boroughs that serve as breeding ground for more serious crimes and pose a threat to the state’s fledgling legal weed industry.
“The vast amount of contraband and loose cash in these smoke shops have made them tantalizing targets for robberies and hotbeds of crime. This has put communities, shop employees and their customers in extreme danger,” she wrote in the bill’s justification. “These shops are also unfair competition to licensed dispensaries, who cannot afford to sell their rigorously tested and regulated cannabis at the prices smoke shops offer.”
The Stop Marijuana Over-proliferation and Keep Empty Operators of Unlicensed Transactions (SMOKEOUT) Act would grant municipalities the authority to order the closure of unlicensed cannabis retailers and seize their merchandise.
Currently, enforcement against illegal shops is left largely to the state Office of Cannabis Management and the New York City Sheriff in the five boroughs. Both agencies have significantly less funding than the NYPD.
Mayor Eric Adams, a top political ally of Rajkumar’s, said last month that the city would be able to get rid of illegal smoke shops if given the proper enforcement power.
“We have to deal with smoke shops, cannabis. We need the enforcement power,” he said. “I will clean up our crisis of cannabis in 30 days if they give me the enforcement power.”
As the state’s new legal weed industry gets off the ground, the proliferation of illegal smoke shops has become a major problem for business owners doing things by the book.
Adams has launched a variety of efforts hoping to crackdown on the illegal shops, including sending 50 letters to building owners where shops are located last month threatening that they could be liable for the illegal activity going on in their properties.
During a Queens town hall in December, the mayor said that the city needs the enforcement power, because the state doesn’t have the staff to address the illegal shops.
“We’re hoping this year in Albany that we are now going to get the enforcement power,” he said. “We will have full enforcement where I can go to the commanding officer and say, ‘Map all your illegal shops and within 30 days we’re closing them down.’ I need the power to do that. I don’t have the power to do that right now.”
Michael Gertelman, head of a soon-to-open delivery service called NugHub, said Tuesday he found efforts so far to crack down on illegal shops unimpressive, but that there might soon be a change in direction.
He said that within a mile of his business’ Port Richmond headquarters he’s seen multiple locations operating illegal smoke shops, challenging his and other’s business in the legal market.
“I believe they’re getting serious about it,” he said. “I hope they buckle down. It’s going to be very important to us, because if those shops are still open, it’s obviously going to affect our way of doing business.”
H/T: www.silive.com
