Is Illegal Pot Shop Crackdown Sputtering as City Appeals a Court Decision?
More than 1,300 unlicensed pot shops were padlocked citywide by NYC sheriffs last year but the efforts may go up in smoke as a legal challenge continue may sideline the effort. A smaller state enforcement effort meanwhile resulted in the padlocking of only 59 illegal shops in Manhattan last year.
The city sheriff shutdown over 1,300 unlicensed pot shops last year, but the crackdown may have hit a speed bump in recent months as the city appeals a court ruling. A slower moving state crackdown remains ongoing, but had netted only 59 illegal store closings in Manhattan last year, a spokesperson for the Office of Cannabis Management told Straus News.
The city was hit with an October 2024 court ruling in favor of an unlicensed dispensary in Queens on due process grounds, which could upend the NY Sheriff Office’s signature “Operation Padlock to Protect” that has been touted by Mayor Eric Adams. The court ruling could give unlicensed shops shut down by local authorities the ability to reopen.
Sources in city government indicated to Straus News that they believed the Sheriff’s padlocking has all but ceased while the city appeals the ruling.
Mayor Eric Adams claimed in his Jan. 9 State of the City address that the city “padlocked more than 1,300 illegal pot shops last year. Thank you Sheriff [Anthony] Miranda.” But he made no mention of the court ruling.
In July 2024, officials estimated the the number of illegal shops across the five boroughs at around 2,900, although some unofficial estimates put the real number much higher.
Queens County Supreme Court Judge Kevin Kerrigan threw a wrench into the city crackdown efforts when he ruled that an unlicensed dispensary owner in that borough had his due process rights violated by the program because he couldn’t meaningfully appeal the immediate padlocking of his store. Specifically, the NYC Sheriff was able to overrule a hearing officer, which Judge Kerrigan said made the process “a theoretically useless function. ... or even a potential farce.” He said that the dispensary in question should be unsealed.
The lawyer representing the Queens dispensary told Gothamist that the judge’s ruling could give other unlicensed dispensaries an opening to file similar lawsuits of their own, potentially negating the “Operation Padlock to Protect” that was touted by Adams when it first kicked off in May. At the kickoff, Adams had a raid that Sheriff Miranda was undertaking in downtown Manhattan shown live during his weekly Tuesday press briefing. In the early weeks, Adams was giving periodic updates on the closures but has not mentioned them in recent months.
Further complicating the issue, the city’s Department of Investigation searched the Sheriff’s Office last September in connection with cash seizures from the padlocking operation, putting further scrutiny on Sheriff Miranda.
One NYPD source told Straus News that while an NYPD task force accompanied the sheriff’s deputies on most raids, the NYPD always took a back seat because the proceeding were generally deemed civil law violations rather than criminal felonies. He also said the NYPD has stricter protocols to account for seized money than the sheriff’s office does.
The OCM said that in addition to the at least 57 illegally unlicensed Manhattan shops that we padlocked in 2024, 425 shops were inspected and 307 received a notice of violation. The total amount of shops padlocked by OCM statewide was 350, the agency said.
The enforcement figures follow the OCM announcing that legal cannabis sales in the state topped $1 billion last year. There were 275 validly licensed dispensaries operating statewide, and 44 are located in Manhattan, according to a verification list provided by the OCM.
The OCM added that their padlocking program benefitted these legally licensed dispensaries, with their sales reportedly surging by 72 percent over a 10 week-period in NYC. Licensed retailers reported a “collective $2.6 million increase in weekly revenues.”
Felicia A.B. Reid, the Acting Executive Director of OCM, notably didn’t mention the NYC Sheriff’s court drama in a statement hailing the enforcement figures.
”Illicit markets know how to adapt to change and challenge—and so, OCM’s enforcement efforts will continue to bring the heat to unregulated operators,” Reid said. “The integrity and opportunity of New York’s legal cannabis market is what’s at stake, and with stakes that high, OCM will continue to be relentless in its investigations, compliance, and enforcement work.”