Roughly 750 smoke shops have been shuttered across the five boroughs in the three months since Mayor Adams’ administration launched a crackdown on unlicensed weed peddlers, city and state officials announced Wednesday.
The updated enforcement numbers represent about one-fourth of the estimated 3,000 illegal marijuana shops in the city.
Adams and Gov. Hochul, who joined him at a Wednesday press conference in the Bronx, touted the latest figures as a win.
“We’re making good on our promise to shut down these illegal storefronts,” Adams said.
The mayor, though, said he couldn’t immediately provide details on how many allegedly illegal stores have stayed closed after being raided. As reported by the Daily News, some stores targeted by the city’s “Operation Padlock” have reopened after getting their sealing orders dismissed in court, including New City Smoke Shop in downtown Manhattan, which was the first business raided as part of the crackdown.
Hochul told reporters that shuttering the illicit shops has turned into a game of “whack-a-mole” due to the reopening trend.
Adams initially promised earlier this year his administration would close every single illegal weed shop in the city within 30 days of being granted expanded enforcement powers by the state. He later walked back that pledge, acknowledging the effort would be too complicated to complete within a month.
The mayor’s office did not immediately return a request for details on shop re-openings.
Hochul, whose Office of Cannabis Management regulates New York’s legal cannabis market, said at the press conference that the state government’s rollout of the licensed marijuana market has been “a little tough,” creating a vacuum in official retailers that gave way for illegal operators to set up shop.
She said the Office of Cannabis Management, which recently underwent a leadership shakeup, is working to “unclog the licensing bottleneck” to ensure more legal operators can open up.
“That coupled with enhanced enforcement is critical,” Hochul said.
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