More retail spaces are arriving even as Mayor Adams and DA Bragg are cracking down on illegal storefront operations by targeting the landlords.
The previous tenant on this corner, the E. 10th St. Finest Deli, closed in December 2020.
The complaints allege that an officer observed the sale of cannabis products at these establishments to underage individuals and sought to shut them down for the illegal sale of cannabis products and operating without a license.Additionally, the Manhattan DA's office mailed letters to each of the more than 400 known smoke shops in Manhattan, warning them of the potential for eviction proceedings for unlawful cannabis sales.
The NYPD's lawsuits allege that officers observed the sale of cannabis to underage auxiliary officers at these four establishments in Manhattan: Runtz Tobacco, 14 First Ave; Broadway, 736 Broadway; Saint Marks Convenience & Smoke Shop, 103 Saint Mark's Place; and Sogie Mart Rolls & Puff, 24 Avenue A.The NYPD now seeks to shut down these unlicensed establishments under New York City's Nuisance Abatement Law for the unlicensed sale of cannabis, also a violation of New York State's Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act.
If the landlord does not make an application to evict within five days of the written notice — or if, after making the application, the landlord does not "in good faith diligently prosecute it" — then the DA's Office will bring its own proceeding against the tenant as though it were the landlord.
"Our clients come and go from this program on a daily basis," said Gabriel Woodhouse, program director with Project Renewal. "It's literally within sight line. I mean, it's right across the street from the front door of our program."
"There will not be smoke that's being pumped out on the street. There won't be music that's being pumped out in the street," Wilson said. "Yes, there will be people, and there will be people shopping. But it's not anything but just a store."
[P]er New York's Office of Cannabis Management, the era of the weed bodega — the tacky, snack-filled corner-store purveyor, like the regular bodega's stoner cousin — is about to be over. Instead, the state's legal weed retailers will be subject to an extremely long list of regulations that includes rules on everything from location to security to aesthetics.The compliance requirements will undoubtedly be onerous and expensive for many of the operators vying for licenses, but the décor rules in particular seem designed to kill the gray-market upstarts that flooded the city in the beautiful, wild period between decriminalization and the rollout of official licenses.It's as if regulators walked into a humble weed bodega — Cloudy Vibez, Weed 4 U, Kannabis Korner — and banned everything they saw: "cartoons," "bubble-type or other cartoon-like font," "bright colors," "neon," the terms "candy" or "candies," "kandy" or "kandeez," and "symbols, images, characters, public figures, phrases, toys, or games" commonly marketed to people under 21.Also barred are signs or business names "depicting cannabis, cannabis products, or the imagery or action of smoking or vaping." As the city begins to enforce these rules in earnest, the welcoming visage of a rasta Alvin the Chipmunk will begin to disappear from our streetscape.
The task force is led by the sheriff's office — the enforcement arm of the city's Department of Finance — and also includes the police department, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and the state Office of Cannabis Management.Mayor Eric Adams announced the creation of the task force in mid-December. In a two-week span, officials said at the time, the task force had inspected 53 storefronts across the city and seized more than 100,000 illegal products worth about $4 million. Officials also issued 500 civil violations and 66 criminal summonses over that time, Sheriff Anthony Miranda said. All told, the city has conducted 248 store inspections, including 23 in December, through Dec. 29.
The sleek dispensaries and tacky bodegas are part of an explosion of unlicensed cannabis shops that have opened in New York over the past year as part of a rush to cash in on the state's legalization of cannabis. Now on the eve of the launch of the state's legal market, the authorities face growing pressure to address the shops, which have created confusion among everyone from tourists to police officers.
The Police Department explained in an email to The New York Times that, in its view, the legalization law does not give officers the authority to make seizures or arrests when they see cannabis displayed or to shut down unlicensed shops. "The law only provides an enforcement mechanism if an actual sale is observed," its public-information office said.
Meanwhile, a survey (results here) conducted by the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association found the presence of potentially deadly E. coli, salmonella and pesticides in many products from 20 unlicensed stores that publicly advertise selling marijuana, as Bloomberg reported.
New York City’s crisp autumn air has a distinct scent to it, and this year that scent is weed. Many of the city streets have a fresh look to them, too — marijuana and cannabis products are for sale, out in the open, everywhere. New York legalized recreational marijuana in the spring of 2021, but the state is still in the process of doling out licenses to legally sell it, which makes the situation ... confusing.
"None of them are compliant, none of them are allowed," said Aaron Ghitelman, a spokesperson for New York state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), in an interview. "They're jumping the gun."