An illuminated neon marijuana leaf shape is pictured in the window of a smoke shop in Manhattan on December 6, 2023.
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Manhattan’s Upper West Side is awash with unlicensed weed shops — and the budding problem continues to grow worse.
At least 53 delis, smoke shops and grocery stores in the uptown neighborhood are hawking marijuana without licenses, according to a recent block-by-block survey conducted by a crack team of staffers from Councilwoman Gale Brewer’s office.
The survey findings, shared exclusively with the Daily News, mark a 104% increase over the 26 unlicensed pot shops that Brewer’s staff discovered when they conducted a similar survey in late 2022 of the same 54-block radius, from W. 54th St. to W. 108th St.
The latest survey, which was conducted in February, involved Brewer staffers inquiring about buying weed at 89 local shops that state records show do not hold marijuana sales licenses. The prior survey was conducted in November and December 2022 using the same methodology.
Brewer, a Democrat who represents the Upper West Side, said the continued proliferation of off-the-books cannabis dealing in her backyard should be a clarion call for state lawmakers to beef up the city’s marijuana enforcement abilities. She also said she wishes the city would use its existing enforcement powers more aggressively.
“It’s definitely frustrating,” Brewer told The News. “We don’t understand why they’re not closed, why they’re not getting padlocked.”
Brewer said she plans to share the tally of unlicensed dispensaries in her district with state and city authorities in hopes it’ll result in more enforcement.
She plans to formally unveil the survey results during a press conference Thursday morning outside Zaza Waza Smoke Shop on Columbus Ave., one of the retailers on her list that’s located around the corner from her district office.
Gale Brewer speaks during a press conference before a New York City Council meeting at City Hall in Manhattan, New York on Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023. (Shawn Inglima for New York Daily News)
The Big Apple’s explosion of unlicensed weed sales started shortly after the state legalized recreational marijuana in 2021. While the move made consumption legal, the rollout of New York’s licensed weed sales industry has been mired in delays, and there’s still only about two dozen shops in the city that hold permits to lawfully sell bud, state records show.
The foot-dragging in setting up a robust legal weed market has created a vacuum for unlicensed shops to crop up, and city officials estimate there are some 1,500 illicit marijuana retailers operating across the five boroughs.
The problem has been compounded by the fact that state law currently doesn’t allow the city to set its own rules on enforcement against illicit cannabis sales.
Brewer’s staffers also found as part of their latest survey that only three of the 26 unlicensed shops they flagged in their initial 2022 canvass have closed down. Two of them — West Coast Convenience on 72nd St. and Amsterdam Varieties Corp. on Amsterdam Ave. — closed up shop last summer as part of a nonprosecution agreement with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, while the third one, 85 Convenient Store, recently shuttered for unknown reasons, Brewer’s team found.
In the meantime, illicit shops have continued to pop up like weeds in Brewer’s district.
Just in the four weeks it took to complete the survey, Brewer’s staffers found that three brand-new unlicensed marijuana pushers opened up their doors.
This year’s state budget is expected to include a measure that would expedite court proceedings against unlicensed weed retailers and authorize local law enforcement agencies like the NYPD and the city sheriff’s office to execute directives from the state Office of Cannabis Management to shut down illicit shops. At the moment, only state authorities can execute such directives.
But Brewer argued the state budget proposal on the table isn’t not going far enough — a view shared by Mayor Adams — since it would still require the city to get state permission to shutter shops.
On top of the budget provision, Brewer said a subdivision must be added to state law allowing any cities across New York with more than 1 million residents to write their own laws as it relates to cannabis enforcement.
“The City Council and the mayor should be able to do it,” she said. “There should be a very fast process to padlock. You always have to have due process, but it has to be a fast process. A place can’t be fined and then a year later it’s still open.”
Members of the New York City Sheriff’s Department and New York State OCM conduct a raid on a smoke shop on Seventh Ave. Thursday, April, 20, 2023 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams for New York Daily News)
There are steps the city should be taking on its own in the interim, she also argued.
She questioned why the NYPD isn’t taking a more leading role in enforcement against illicit cannabis retailers. At the moment, Brewer said that’s mostly a job carried out by the sheriff’s office, but that agency’s clip of inspecting suspected unlicensed cannabis stores slowed down last year, and meanwhile state authorities have failed to collect on millions of dollars in fines levied against marijuana-peddling scofflaws, the news outlet The City reported last month.
A spokeswoman for the mayor said the city has conducted 46,000 cannabis inspections, issued over 17,000 summonses and collected over $18 million in fines since Adams took office in January 2022.
The spokeswoman said the city must get more help from the state, though.
“That’s why Mayor Adams has been clear in his call for Albany to give New York City the power to shut down these illegal shops,” said the spokeswoman, Liz Garcia. “The administration is continuing to work with the governor’s office and our state partners to give municipalities the power to enforce against, inspect, and close illegal dispensaries more quickly and efficiently.”
A map showing unlicensed cannabis shops on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, according to a survey conducted by NYC Councilwoman Gale Brewer’s office. (Google)
Asked about Brewer’s proposal for more city autonomy, Avi Small, a spokesman for Gov.
Hochul, said the governor supports letting the city carry out its own cannabis enforcement.
“Her budget proposal authorizing localities to swiftly and permanently close unlicensed shops is the most effective way to get the job done,” Small said.
Besides quality-of-life concerns connected with unlicensed weed shops, Brewer said she’s worried that letting them go unchecked is hampering the few retailers that have actually obtained licenses to sell marijuana legally.
“The ones that are licensed are being hurt by these shops,” she said.
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