Marijuana is pictured in an undated photo. (Shutterstock)
A renewed push to weed out the estimated 2,500 unlicensed cannabis shops in the city rolled forward Friday, another effort in what so far has been a largely losing battle.
Two state lawmakers rallied at City Hall to advocate for a state budget provision that could vest the city with broader authority to carry out enforcement actions on illicit pot stores. And a city lawmaker promised to reintroduce a plan that would allow the shops to be targeted under New York City’s half-century-old nuisance abatement law, which allows the city to close certain businesses.
City Councilman Keith Powers, the Manhattan Democrat spearheading the city-level plan, said he expected the legislation to be reintroduced next week. It would be a novel use of the nuisance abatement law, which was first used to crack down on brothels around Times Square, but was later expanded to target drug dens and liquor stores that sell to minors.
Powers introduced the plan in November, and it picked up more than 22 sponsors in the 51-member chamber. But with the flipping of the calendar, the bill must be reintroduced; Powers said the Council is “moving at warp speed” on the plan, and that it would be put forward following technical tweaks.
“Obviously, we know the urgency,” Powers said by phone. “We’re hearing every day about new shops opening up.”
Mayor Adams, who could sign the bill into law if it is passed, has backed the bill, Powers said.
The Democratic mayor has also called on state legislators to pass a new law vesting the city with greater authority to shutter illicit cannabis shops. He has claimed he would wipe the stores off the city’s streetscape “within 30 days” if given full control over enforcement.
Gov. Hochul, who has presided over the bumpy marijuana legalization rollout, has acknowledged that the process has been disastrous. She has moved to help the city target the unlicensed shops.
In 2022, New York State began to issue its first retail marijuana licenses. But a sluggish permit approval process has allowed a sprawling market of gray market sellers to crop up in New York City.
The city has 33 legal cannabis retailers, according to the state Cannabis Management Office. The unlicensed joints appear to be challenging the legal stores’ ability to take off, and many of the stores target kids, according to officials.
The budget plan Hochul is negotiating with state lawmakers this year would bolster the power of the state’s cannabis office and empower city authorities to execute state-issued closure orders on illegal shops, according to the governor’s office.
In an address to lawmakers last month laying out her priorities, Hochul decried “illegal cannabis vendors who flagrantly violate our laws.” She vowed to “empower localities to go after the unlicensed shops, prosecute businesses that sell to minors and padlock their doors faster.”
State Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar and Sen. Leroy Comrie, two Queens Democrats, convened a rally on the City Hall steps on Friday to urge their colleagues to push the proposed pot shop provisions through.
Rajkumar and Comrie introduced a bill called the SMOKEOUT Act intended to enhance the city’s powers to shutter illegal pot shops, a push that Hochul then took up in state budget talks.
“We’re going to take all these illegal cannabis shops, and we’re going to smoke them out,” Rajkumar declared at the rally. “These illegal shops are hotbeds of crime.”
The state-level push has backing in the City Council. Two weeks ago, Councilwoman Lynn Schulman, a Queens Democrat, introduced a resolution calling on the Legislature to pass the SMOKEOUT Act. The resolution has seven sponsors so far.
View more on
New York Daily News
Be the first to comment