Prime example is New York City where marijuana is being sold at stores in the neighborhood that ain’t paying New York State a nickel….Why pay taxes?
And with decriminalisation ?
Cops have other things to do…..
In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams has recently sharpened his focus on combating the proliferation of unlicensed cannabis vendors, which now number between 1,400 and 1,500, many of them targeting the young and impressionable. While marijuana is technically no longer against the law in New York, the slow pace of the state licensing process has brought just three legal recreational dispensaries to the city so far, leaving the sale of weed largely to an economy we might describe as underground were it not happening so explicitly at street level. As a city and a nation, the mayor said at a news conference this week, we were “losing our grip”; children were going to school high on gummies they bought at the corner store….
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After years of overly aggressive policing of marijuana merely at the level of possession, the state law legalizing it was designed with equity as a primary goal, giving small businesses in neighborhoods that had been devastated by the punitive tactics of stop-and-frisk an opportunity to build wealth selling safe, uncontaminated weed to adults. What was not supposed to happen was an undermining of the legal market by off-book vendors selling cheaply to the most vulnerable while making private equity landlords richer…
NYC trying to make money …..One doubts this will actually worki in stopping marijuana street sale’s
Inside NYC law enforcement efforts to stamp out illegal pot shops…
…Cannabis is big business in the wake of New York’s 2021 decision to legalize recreational pot. And there’s been a boom of shop owners illegally selling a variety of cannabis, edibles, vape products and cigarettes — even as the city ramps up efforts to stamp the black market out.
New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda, who invited The Post to ride along with his deputies this week, testified during a January city council hearing that law enforcement is targeting more than 1,400 stores for suspected illegal activity.
The task force is part of the city’s effort to crack down on these illegal pot shops. But officials – including Mayor Eric Adams – have said the state law that legalized the drug has kneecapped their mission….
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“We’re not worried [about another raid]. If we were worried, we wouldn’t be selling this product,” a store staffer boasted to The Post.
On Monday, the store appeared shuttered, with a locked door and empty shelves. But the worker’s attitude proliferates among illegal sellers….
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Robles, the Sheriff’s Office detective, said a store can be shut down if it has three offenses. But the stores often find legal loopholes that let them reopen….
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181 Convenience was closed Tuesday. Bongs and bowls lined the storefront’s shelves, but the gate was down and the shop was dark. An employee outside said he didn’t know when the store would reopen.
Meanwhile, Bavaro’s was selling THC products the next day.
“The state sells it, why can’t we sell it?” said Jamel Zak, an store employee. “It is what it is.”
More…