Mayor Eric Adams may face uphill battle in crackdown on unlicensed stores selling marijuana
NEW YORK -- Mayor Eric Adams has declared war on stores selling marijuana without a license, but it may be an uphill battle.
CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer discovered there are lots of unlicensed stores, and they're very well-stocked.
Kramer says she walked into a store on West 52nd Street that made it clear it was selling a multitude of marijuana products and asked the question of the day: "Do you have any flower?"
"Yeah, it's right here," a clerk told her.
Flower, you see, is what those in the know call marijuana these days. Not pot, not weed -- it's called flower.
The clerk proceeded to show Kramer a long row of different kinds of marijuana displayed in clear Plexiglass boxes so connoisseurs can smell the different types before making a choice.
It's also the way they display marijuana at a store near Times Square called Indoor Cannabis. The green neon sign identifies the merchandise as '"flower" also.
Kramer found lots of stores selling marijuana on her way to a City Hall press conference, where the mayor announced a crackdown.
Adams says he's not going to allow any of these unlicensed stores to operate because the city and state want to promote the legal cannabis market, which by law gives license preference to those impacted by the drug laws.
"You can't just pop up and open a shop," Adams said. "Here's what we want to avoid. We don't want someone from another municipality, a large chain, to come in and think they're going to undermine the industry here by putting up front money up to open these locations all over."
The mayor said the city had just completed a two-week pilot program to go after unlicensed shops: 53 were closed; $4 million of merchandise confiscated, including 600 pounds of marijuana; 500 civil summonses issued, and 66 criminal summonses.
The mayor was also upset about all the edibles being sold, several packaged to duplicate popular snacks for children, which officials say is dangerous.
Holding up packages of edibles designed to resemble Trolli candy packaging, Adams said, "Look at this design. This is alarming for a child or parent to have a child walk in, these beautiful colors ... It looks exactly the same."
But the big question may be how long it takes the city to identify these stores and how many of them there actually are.
The head of the state Office of Cannabis Management says it's a health risk to have a legally regulated market operated side-by-side with an illegal market.
Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday unveiled a new verification tool to easily identify licensed cannabis dispensaries.
A logo with a scannable QR code will be posted in the front windows of each licensed store.
Every product sold will also include a universal symbol to indicate that it's been tested and regulated by New York state.