© Angela Wilhelm/Citizen Times / USA TODAY NETWORK
(New York, NY) – New York City is marking a milestone in its crackdown on illegal marijuana shops. Mayor Eric Adams says that the city has shut down more than one-thousand unlicensed shops since Operation Padlock to Protect began four months ago.
City officials also destroyed more than four tons of seized illegal products, worth an estimated 63-million. That’s so the products, likely laced with all sorts of things, can be disposed of in an environmentally-friendly way. Adams added that the task force has inspected 100-percent of the shops known to be selling cannabis illegally.
Governor Hochul noted thousands of illegal businesses have sprung up which siphon profits from the legal licensed retailers. Starting in May, the state’s Illicit Cannabis Enforcement Task Force, state police and agencies deployed some 150 investigators and conducted over 700 inspections statewide. Since then ICET has padlocked 345 unlicensed shops and seized nearly 29-million worth of illegal product. This expansion of enforcement has also led to surge in legal cannabis sales, which are now up 51-percent since May.
