In neighborhoods across the city, retail closures are often a cause for mourning. But a wave of shutdowns expected in the coming months instead merits a round of applause.
At long last, state policymakers are moving decisively to facilitate the shutdown of thousands of illegal cannabis shops that have spread across New York City, undercutting the state’s legal weed market and contributing to an air of lawlessness.
The state’s new $237 billion budget allows municipalities to seek emergency court orders to shutter the shops and — critically — empowers state and local authorities to seize cannabis and padlock businesses immediately after an inspection if they are found to be selling illicit products or serving minors. The state also plans to go after suppliers who are stocking the illegal shops. And landlords in the city that fail to start eviction proceedings against an illicit shop within five days of being notified could be fined $50,000.
Meantime, conscientious landlords have a new tool to evict tenants in violation of the law: They will now only have to prove that a business is “customarily or habitually” engaged in selling cannabis without a license, rather than “solely or primarily” doing so.
The policy changes give regulatory and enforcement agencies all the tools they’ve been asking for, so there should be no more excuses. If the state’s Office of Cannabis Management and local authorities including the NYPD follow through, the illicit shops should begin to fall like dominoes. There’s plenty of work to do: While there are about 100 legal cannabis shops open for business across the state, an estimated 2,000 illegal shops have been operating with impunity in New York City alone.
“The illegal shops will not disappear overnight,” Gov. Kathy Hochul cautioned at a press conference with Mayor Eric Adams, who had pushed for the crackdown alongside his Albany ally, Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar. “But New Yorkers eventually will see a change in their communities.”
The communities have been waiting long enough; it’s not a big ask to expect government agencies to have planned ahead and put in place common-sense regulation and enforcement mechanisms in advance of legalizing recreational marijuana.
The best time to have shut down the illegal shops was the moment they started popping up. The second best time is now.
The Editors , 2024-04-26 17:20:12
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