Monday, March 6, 2023

City and state officials continue cracking down on illegal smoke shops

Top 2 photos by Stacie Joy; others by EVG

Law enforcement officials returned to two East Village shops to slap them with restraining orders to prohibit them from selling unlicensed cannabis.

A restraining order now hangs on the storefront at Saint Marks Convenience & Smoke Shop, 103 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue. The retaining order notes that the "unlicensed sale of cannabis" is prohibited...
The shop remains in business, selling smoking accessories and exotic flavors of snacks.

Similar legal notices are affixed to the front of Runtz at 14 First Ave. between First Street and Second Street...
Here, though, there's a "partially closed" sign ... access is permitted to tenants, the landlord, employees, contractors, etc., "only for inspections, repairs, modifications, removal of personal property" ...
The shop appears to be permanently shuttered. (And it had been challenging for Runtz. Armed robbers reportedly took them for $5,400 shortly after opening this past August.)

Both businesses were the target of a multi-agency sweep on Feb. 9, a show of force after Mayor Adams and Manhattan DA Bragg announced that they had joined forces, cracking down on illegal storefront operations by targeting the landlords. 

In other cannabis-related news, the storefront for the cannabis lifestyle brand CannaCulture NYC has been closed for the past month at 118 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue. Someone covered the windows and painted over the façade at the shop, which opened last July...
Last Thursday, the Cannabis Control Board doubled the number of social equity licenses but didn't have an update on a timeline for opening up the broader licensing process for general retail outlets, Gothamist reported

Per Gothamist: "It could be several months before general business owners who don't qualify for a CAURD license get a chance to set up shop in the new legal cannabis market."

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was under the impression that the landlords were also to be held responsible for renting to these "Smoke Shops"
What ever became of that?

Giovanni said...

It amazes me that so many people still smoke anything. Marijuana contains high levels if tar and chemicals that irritate the respiratory tract, reducing immune response, which is why regular users have more bronchitis and pneumonia than non-smokers., It’s also likely to cause COPD, mouth and lung cancer. After so many years of knowing how bad cigarettes are, everyone seems to think smoking weed, vaping, and looking cool by smoking cigarettes again are safe for some reason. I have known too many friends and family members who have become chronically ill and died from cigarette smoking. If you don't want to suffer the same fate, there’s an easy answer: don’t smoke.

Anonymous said...

I've bought legal cannabis in seven different states. NY is by far the weirdest rollout. Have to do things in our own special way I guess.

Anonymous said...

Giovanni you are absolutely correct. As an old kind of former pot head with lung issues, have to admit I did check out the legit and not so legit pot shops. Call me curious, naive (and stupid) but I was amazed they sold so much stuff with added ingredients. Seriously? I tried a few and my lungs were on fire the next day. Seriously scary stuff, particularly from the unlicensed shops. Kids, if you have to smoke it smoke only pure flower. Better yet, don't do it. For me, one of my life's biggest regrets is smoking so much weed.

Anonymous said...

Really enjoyed a lot more when it was ilegal

Anonymous said...

Let them smoke. We should all be loyal to the nightmare of our choice.
"Eat right, work out, die anyway"...

Billsville said...

This is one of those cases where solving a problem actually makes it worse. Now that pot is legal it is everywhere, a lot of it comes with much higher THC levels, making people much more prone to hallucination, paranoia and psychotic episodes. Plus we all have to walk down the street and inhale God knows what from the guy smoking weed in every doorway. It sounded like a good idea before we saw how badly people abused the privilege to the detriment of every non-smoker. But hey, landlords are making more money so at least there's that.

Giovanni said...

@12;18PM I'm sorry to hear about your lung issues, people don't seem to realize the lungs do not heal and the damage is permanent, and you were probably smoking the relatively untainted stuff compared to the junk they sell today. People who grew up on Cheech & Chong movies laughed every time they lit up and started coughing. Now we know why they were coughing so much.

Anonymous said...

I hope they knock out the side-by-side shops anchoring the southeast corner of 11th and 1st, where the consignment shop used to be, and the second one right next to it on 11th directly across from the mosque. Both are heavily used by the food delivery guys that congregate en masse - sometimes to the point the sidewalk is impassible - by the halal food truck. That whole corner is a shit show now.

YAISAIDIT said...

"sigh" people never heard of eddbles...tinctures

lotions creams butter honeys...and so on its its not just about the flower and lung smoke,climmb out from under your rocks...