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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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1,400 illegal pot shops now open in New York City
#28146669 - 01/18/23 09:07 PM (1 year, 2 months ago) |
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Wild West: 1,400 illegal pot shops now open in NYC, already ‘reeking’ havoc January 18, 2023 - New York Post
An astounding 1,400 shops have popped up around New York City that are illegally selling cannabis products — a situation that alarmed lawmakers decried as the “Wild, Wild West” during a City City Council hearing Wednesday.
City Sheriff Anthony Miranda and representatives of the NYPD testified that existing laws make it difficult to immediately close illicit shops and often can issue only measly $250 fines for selling pot without a license — hardly a deterrent even after seizing illegal weed and edibles.
Miranda said illegal smoke shops are “rampant throughout the city” — noting 1,400 stores are being targeted and inspected by authorities for suspected illegal activity.
Just one legal weed shop is currently open in New York City with a second expected to open next week. But all the legal and illicit sales — combined with use of pot products being legalized — has left city streets smelling decidedly skunky.
Mayor Eric Adams last year created a cannabis task force to crack down on the illegal pot market, corralling a hodgepodge of agencies with enforcement powers including the sheriff’s office, the NYPD and Department of Consumer Affairs.
More alarming than the proliferation itself, one council member after another told horror stories regarding the ease with which teenaged high school students were able to access cannabis on the black market.
Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, who represents the Lower East Side, said high school students were using credit cards to buy cannabis.
“We have a lot of work to do,” said Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who chairs the oversight and investigations committee.
“There’s a lot of marketing that’s going to children. There’s a lot of public health issues, danger to the community. We want to make sure they’re in compliance,” Miranda said during the hearing, conducted jointly by the Council Committees on Oversight and Investigation, Consumer Affairs and Health.
The NYPD’s 311 data system received 951 complaints about illicit cannabis shops, said chief of patrol John Chell.
Chell said the illegal pot shops — with large amounts of cash on the premises — have also been a bonanza for crooks.
Robberies at smoke shops have more than doubled. A total of $1.5 million was stolen — or an average of $2,500 for the 593 reported robberies, he said.
Chell said nearly a third of the robberies of smoke shops were committed by teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19.
He said robbers are hitting several smoke shops in different boroughs in one night, adding that three shops were robbed Tuesday night.
“The same group of people. It’s a challenge for us,” Chell said.
None other than state Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), author of the law that legalized the recreational use of cannabis, called the number of illicit shops out there “the wild, wild west.”
“They’re busy breaking a whole series of our laws. What it is doing is harming the entire model we’ve been trying so hard to build and get established throughout the state,” Krueger said, testifying remotely at the Council investigative hearing from Albany.
Krueger said she’s in negotiations with Gov. Katy Hochul’s office to craft a new state law to beef up enforcement, making it easier for authorities to financially punish and close illegal shops. see also New York City has become a wake and bake oven as folks take the streets to smoke marijuana early in the morning while some commuters can't stand the smell of smoke. Legal weed is wreaking havoc on return to office: ‘all of NY is wake and baking’
The new legislation would stiffen fines and tax violations, make it easier to seize illegal pot and also penalize landlords for allowing illegal shops to operate on their property.
Sheriff Miranda said notices are being sent to landlords of a tenant that has been illegally selling cannabis.
“If you’re running one of these illegal shops, you’re not going to get a license. Period. Because you know you’re breaking the law and it’s not OK,” Sen. Krueger said.
Hochul spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays said, “We continue to work with our partners to enforce the law and to explore every possible mechanism available to protect New Yorkers and shut down illicit operators.”
Customers buying cannabis at the only legal dispensary open — at Housing Works on Broadway in Greenwich Village — supported a crackdown in illegal shops.
“I’ve been to other shops — you know, the fake ones. The ones that advertise CBD but also sell edibles and regular weed. But you don’t know what you’re getting at those places. You know what’s going into the weed at dispensaries,” said Jason Brown, a 47-year-old construction worker from Babylon, Long Island.
“It’s regulated and safer. You get a full layout of what’s in it..”
Brown supported a crackdown on the illegal shops with hefty fines because “would you want to pay a million dollars for a permit to open up a business here and then they’re going to let everyone else open up a business on every other corner, and sell it without a permit?”
Hannah, a 21-year-old from Crown Heights, said the illegal shops in Brooklyn are “very Ok.” “They don’t check your IDs and there’s no security like here,” she said of the state-licensed Housing Works dispensary.
”It’s very surprising. Honestly, I feel like I’m not smoking weed when I go there.”
She said she expects better quality weed at the licensed shops but added, “If these illegal places are not selling products that you’re tripping on and end up in the hospital, OK — go for it.”
Surrounding unlicensed shops selling weed seemed unconcerned by the state-licensed dispensary nearby.
At Lush Smoke Shop on MacDougal Street, a worker there said that people prefer their cannabis products because they’re stronger and not “mid” like Housing Works weed.
The store sells popular black market products like Punch Bars (edibles) and prerolls.
One customer said, “I prefer their pre-rolls because the flavor tastes better and they get you higher.”
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burntkitty
Registered: 01/02/23
Posts: 494
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Re: 1,400 illegal pot shops now open in New York City [Re: veggie]
#28147130 - 01/19/23 08:41 AM (1 year, 2 months ago) |
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In the land of pirates, your better off saying all thieves for themselves
-------------------- Hating America doesn't make one racist, it probably means they're the complete opposite. That's not it's name pilgrim Shia wang a genius he just kept showing his soft til the paparazzi stopped following Thought capitalism was suppose to stop these soviet union lines If you give me herpes, Ill give you AIDs What kind of sickness do they have for wanting the creative not creative. I can only imagine it's satanism
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superreggie
Stranger
Registered: 02/23/19
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Re: 1,400 illegal pot shops now open in New York City [Re: veggie] 3
#28147258 - 01/19/23 11:07 AM (1 year, 2 months ago) |
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Manhattan had all kinds of weed smoking parlors in the 1800s. Super interesting.
"The Police Gazette estimated there were more than 500 hashish smoking parlors in New York City in the 1880s and it was estimated by the NYPD that there were still 500 or more hashish parlors in N.Y.C. in the 1920s—more of these parlors than there were “speakeasys” during the same 1920s alcohol prohibition period."
https://billstclair.com/ElectricEmperor/12/ECH12_04.HTM
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Northerner
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Registered: 07/29/12
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Loc: FNQ
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Re: 1,400 illegal pot shops now open in New York City [Re: superreggie] 2
#28150790 - 01/21/23 03:58 PM (1 year, 2 months ago) |
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So there's just one legal smoke store in a city of 9 million people and they don't understand why people keep creating a black market. Dumb as a box of rocks.
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The nearest we ever come to knowing truth is when we are witness to paradox.
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BeeZee
Nunya
Registered: 06/08/20
Posts: 2,769
Loc: 321
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Re: 1,400 illegal pot shops now open in New York City [Re: Northerner]
#28153094 - 01/23/23 01:27 AM (1 year, 2 months ago) |
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For real what do people think is going to happen
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Northerner
splelling chceker
Registered: 07/29/12
Posts: 14,640
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Re: 1,400 illegal pot shops now open in New York City [Re: BeeZee]
#28153098 - 01/23/23 01:39 AM (1 year, 2 months ago) |
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Apparently they were expecting a million people to go to that one store.
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The nearest we ever come to knowing truth is when we are witness to paradox.
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viraldrome
Registered: 09/21/18
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Re: 1,400 illegal pot shops now open in New York City [Re: veggie] 1
#28153244 - 01/23/23 06:13 AM (1 year, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
veggie said: Wild West: 1,400 illegal pot shops now open in NYC, already ‘reeking’ havoc
New York City has become a wake and bake oven as folks take the streets to smoke marijuana early in the morning while some commuters can't stand the smell of smoke. Legal weed is wreaking havoc on return to office: ‘all of NY is wake and baking’
How do people complain about weed smell in a place where all you can smell is sewers and garbage? I give zero point zero fucks about anyone who doesn't like the smell, I don't like the smell of your cooking, or your auto exhaust, or your perfume, we don't get a fucking choice in what we smell.
If you live in a place with legal weed i encourage you to smoke it everywhere. The only way we will ever get consumption lounges is when enough Karens get enough 2nd hand weed smoke blown on them at the park that they call city council and ask for them. We are never going back to illegal and public smoking will never be "cracked down on" if you don't vocally support Amsterdam style coffeeshops you deserve to breath my cloud in. 95 percent of rental apartments in my city prohibit smoking of anything, there is nowhere to smoke it but in public. It's not my fault and I don't feel bad about it.
I started with considerate smoking when it first became legal nut now I'm militant.
-------------------- Lysergamides I have tried so far: 1P-LSD, 1cP-LSD, ALD-52, AL-LAD, LSZ, ETH-LAD, MIPLA, EIPLA, 1cP-AL-LAD
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