Thousands of marijuana shops boldly opened without a license in New York City after the state legalized recreational use of the drug, but after more than a year of lax enforcement, new state rules are finally allowing officials to padlock their doors.
New York City’s sheriff’s office says it has shuttered around 700 illegal stores since new state regulations passed in April. The unsanctioned shops had become ubiquitous across the Big Apple, when the city’s power to step in had been limited and the legal market was mired in red tape.
Officials had estimated there were some 2,900 unlicensed vendors throughout New York City — compared to around 60 licensed dispensaries currently operating. But cannabis industry licensees say the sheriff is starting to bring order.
Enforcement used to be “kind of a joke, and now it’s not,” said Sasha Nutgent, retail director of Manhattan’s Housing Works Cannabis Co., which rang up the state’s first legal marijuana sale in December 2022.
Around 100 shops have successfully defended themselves against the fines since April, sometimes by citing faulty paperwork or the sheriff’s lack of evidence, according to analyses of city administrative hearing data by The Associated Press and the City Council’s investigative arm. But some of those businesses still closed anyway.
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