The Mayor of New York orders the NYPD to crack down on illegal cannabis sellers
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New York Mayor Eric Adams is not happy with the Big Apple’s prolific illicit cannabis sales taking place across the city. He’s so hot under the collar that he’s vowed to send more cops onto the streets and step up enforcement. The NYPD began towing 19 cannabis sales trucks through Times Square and confiscated the cannabis inside in just one day this week.
“A lot of people don’t read the whole law. All they read is ‘weed is legal,’ and they just go for it,” Adams said Thursday at an independent news conference in Manhattan.
“This will not be a city where we openly turn our noses up and break the law. This is not acceptable. We didn’t get in with SWAT teams, we got in with tow trucks. You can’t sell weed on our streets,” the mayor said.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images
change of heart
Adams told NYC residents in early June to buy, sell and consume weed wherever they choose. He vowed not to clamp down on those who illegally sell marijuana in the city.
With recreational cannabis now legal and sales set to begin in the coming months, the mayor said at the time that he saw no need to stop sales in the meantime.
RELATED: NYC mayor says he won’t crack down on illegal weed sales, tells Big Apple to light up and enjoy
“There has to be a system that isn’t clumsy, but tells the business, ‘Look, you can’t do this,’ gives them a warning,” Adams told reporters at a cannabis industry expo in Manhattan in June.
RELATED: New York Office of Cannabis Management Asks TikTok to Allow Educational Weed Ads
But now the weed trucks parked across the city, not just in Times Square, seem to annoy the mayor. A similar crackdown happened against a dozen weed-vending trucks in mid-June, two weeks after the mayor’s comment about “no clumsiness.”
In smoke. 19 illegal vehicles and cannibis have been seized from the streets of NYC. While others play by the rules, these trucks and their dealers don’t have permits, so we acted! pic.twitter.com/DzjAyEl3Xc
— Chief Jeffrey Maddrey (@NYPDChiefPatrol) August 17, 2022
Meanwhile, the Cannabis Control Board (CCB) recently approved the first round of cannabis processor licenses and emergency laboratory testing regulations.
This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.
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