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Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is moving to take advantage of its newfound ability to inspect and then padlock illicit cannabis shops, thanks to the authority the city was granted in last month’s state budget.
The city on Tuesday published a new set of emergency rules that would give the City Sheriff the ability to inspect businesses selling cannabis and seal the shops entirely when they pose an “imminent threat” to public health and safety. Authorities planned to inspect 20 different shops on Tuesday, Sheriff Anthony Miranda told reporters during a press conference, where he called in live from a Lower Manhattan smoke shop that deputies had just raided.
Adams had long begged the state for permission to more quickly shutter the unlicensed retailers, which now number around 2,800 across the city, according to his administration. Although Adams had promised to close down all illegal shops within 30 days of being granted the authority to do so, it took City Hall more than two weeks to draft the new policies following the state budget’s passage.
The city’s rules mainly formalize what the state budget already authorized, such as the ability to inspect shops suspected of selling marijuana without licenses. But the rules shed more light on how the city plans to carry out those inspections: The Sheriff’s Office will create a “roster” of shops due for inspections, compiled through a mix of law enforcement observations, civilian complaints and signage or advertisements from the shops themselves.
To padlock a shop, the sheriff can point to any of the “imminent threats” already listed in the state’s cannabis law, such as evidence that the store sold cannabis to minors or carried unlicensed products. But the city is also adding its own new restrictions: a cannabis shop can be considered an “imminent threat” if it is within 1,000 feet of a school or house of worship, according to the new rules — a bigger range than the 200-foot limit that the state imposes on legal cannabis retailers.
“The greater distances included in this rule reflect the more serious risks that illegal businesses pose,” reads the city’s new rule. The regulations are being put forward by the Department of Finance, which oversees the city’s Sheriff’s Office.
When sheriff’s deputies seize illicit cannabis, they will be required to store the products in a secure location based on a not-yet-specified “cataloguing system” and give each business a list of the items seized. Storeowners whose products are taken can challenge the seizure and petition for the items’ return within 20 days.
“If you’re out there, we have a lock with your name on it,” Adams said during a press conference Tuesday morning.
The Finance department is adopting the new rules on an emergency basis, allowing them to take effect quickly and skip the usual weekslong public comment period for agency regulations.
The proliferation of unlicensed weed shops has become visible in virtually every corner of the city and embarrassed the state as it tries to jumpstart its slow-rolling legal cannabis program. About 40 legal cannabis stores have opened within New York City since last year.
The Adams administration has made other efforts to shutter the shops, including by filing lawsuits against them under the city’s public nuisance law and threatening legal action against more than 600 landlords who lease space to the stores. City Hall says it has closed 128 unlicensed stores and issued more than 20,000 summonses, but the efforts have plainly failed to put a major dent in the problem.
Other provisions in the new state budget will subject landlords to a $50,000 fine if they fail to start eviction proceedings after being warned they are renting to an illicit shop. The budget also empowers the state’s Office of Cannabis Management to padlock businesses immediately after an inspection if they are found to be selling illicit products or peddling to minors.
The mayor’s office said the inspections on Tuesday were part of a citywide crackdown that “will accelerate in the coming weeks.” But the administration has made no recent promises about when it expects to close down a bigger chunk of the shops.
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Nick Garber , 2024-05-07 19:31:01
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