The shop was located on First Avenue near East 87th Street. (GoogleMaps)
NEW YORK CITY — Sweetooth, an Upper East Side “infused” bake shop, came to a bitter end Monday after authorities said it illegally sold unlicensed pot products.
A multi-agency raid led by New York City sheriff’s officers closed the First Avenue bakery, confiscated hundreds of cannabis edibles and other goods and arrested its owner on a drug charge, city officials told Patch.
The shop just blocks from the mayor’s Gracie Mansion residence had been targeted by local Council Member Julie Menin, who last week announced a crackdown on illegal smoke shops.
Find out what’s happening in New York Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Menin said her office will continue to work with the Sheriff’s Office Joint Compliance Task Force to make sure “bad actors” face consequences for their actions.
“Businesses should never market cannabis products to children and I will continue to work with relevant agencies to ensure compliance with all laws,” she said in a statement.
Find out what’s happening in New York Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
A spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams echoed Menin’s denunciations.
“Mayor Adams has been clear: We will not let the economic opportunities that legal cannabis offers be taken for a ride by unlicensed establishments,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Recreational marijuana is legal in New York, but officially licensed shops have been slow to open. There are just six legal dispensaries in New York City.
By contrast, hundreds of unlicensed pot shops have sprouted across the city and threaten to smoke out the legal ones, at least by many officials’ reckoning.
And it appears many New Yorkers would welcome a crackdown on so-called “gray market” cannabis businesses.
A Siena College poll released Monday found that 58 percent of New Yorkers surveyed agree that businesses that sell cannabis without a license should be fined or even closed.
Sweetooth opened its location at First Avenue and East 87th Street in February, East Side Feed reported. It sold a kaleidoscope of THC-infused baked goods, cupcakes, donuts, cakes and more.
But the business drew complaints from the community, according to Menin’s office.
The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection slapped it with eight violations before the fateful raid Monday.
The inspection by the Sheriff’s Joint Compliance Task Force — which includes the sheriff’s office, NYPD, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and several other city agencies — found even more violations, city officials said.
The group seized more than 280 THC vapes, roughly 490 pre-rolls and 825 packages of THC edibles, officials said.
They arrested the shop’s owner on a charge of possession of cannabis and imposed $13,000 in fines for various violations, officials said.
The shop was closed based on health department violations, officials said.
H/T: patch.com
You can view the whole article at this link UES Weed Bakery Closed In Unlicensed Cannabis Crackdown
