As illegal pot dispensaries thrive, NYC goes after landlords

NEW YORK — In a renewed push to snuff out New York City’s thriving illegal cannabis market, Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan’s top prosecutor announced Tuesday that they would go after landlords who allow hundreds of illicit shops to operate. During a news conference with the mayor, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said his office has sent notices to more than 400 smoke shops that illegally sell cannabis, warning them of potential eviction proceedings. the proliferation of storefronts across New York City selling unlicensed, unregulated, untaxed cannabis products.” The notices say that the district attorney’s office is prepared to use its authority “to commence eviction proceedings of commercial tenants who are engaged in illegal trade or business,” adding that prosecutors within five days of the written notice would “take over such eviction.” The New York Police Department has sued four illicit cannabis shops in Manhattan’s Lower East Side to try to shut them down under the city’s nuisance and abatement law, as well as the state’s new marijuana rules. The city said it took the action after a decoy operation found evidence that the shops sold cannabis products to people below 21 years of age, the legal age to buy marijuana under state law.