City Cracking Down on Illegal Weed Shops

The city is trying to crack down on smoke shops who illegally sell pot. -File Photo

By David Greene 

Bronx Voice 

April 24, 2023

BRONX - As the first legal weed shops in the Bronx have not even opened yet, the city is currently working to close the estimated 1,625 illegal shops that have opened since marijuana was legalized in New York City in 2021.

Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phillip Banks was joined by NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell and New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda for a press conference discussing several topics at the Tweed Courthouse in Manhattan on April 14.

Banks said, "There are currently 4 legal cannabis retailers operating in New York City, three in Manhattan and one in Queens. These stores are licensed by the state and the products that they sell are regulated. What do we mean by regulated? They're tested in a lab so you can be sure that the product you are paying for is the product you received.”

Banks continued, "If you're purchasing cannabis at another shop, one you do not know what you're ingesting. Two, the shop is operating illegally, so therefore it is an illegal sale." Banks also noted, "They have become a hotspot for robberies because they often deal in large quantities of cash.”

Banks noted a homicide the previous Sunday at an illegal weed shop in Harlem that was caught on video. The killer has since been apprehended.

According to Sheriff Miranda, the New York City Sheriff has inspected 143 smoke shops during the first 3-months of 2023, and have made 46 arrests and have issued 73 Civil Court summonses. Miranda also added that if found guilty, the cost of those summonses would total $2.6 million and his office has also confiscated an estimated $6 million in illegal weed products.

Chell said that the NYPD has worked with the City Council on the weed issue, and said, "We've ramped up our nuisance abatement approach," adding that currently 60 businesses were in the process of being closed as those cases continue to be adjudicated in Civil Court.

The New York Post reported that the Harlem store where the man was murdered had been raided weeks earlier, only to reopen when the killing took place.