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In some parts of Yonkers — the state’s third largest municipality outside of the Big Apple — you can find two or three illegal smoke shops on every corner, says Mayor Michael Spano.
But efforts to shut them down in this city of 210,000 in southern Westchester County have largely hit a brick wall.
Though several would-be purveyors have expressed strong interest, Yonkers has yet to see a licensed retail cannabis dispensary open within its borders, so the city needs to shut down the outlaws so the legitimate shops can thrive, Spano said.
Yonkers has tried to take the bull by the horns, Spano told NY Cannabis Insider, but it hasn’t really worked.
A March 9 crackdown temporarily closed down seven illegal smoke shops and netted $30,000 of illegal product, but little has happened since then.
“It’s a problem,” Spano said. Of the 10 illegal smoke shops closed down so far this year, “most, if not all of them have reopened,” he said.
The Yonkers Police Department said in a statement to NY Cannabis Insider that its task force’s enforcement efforts were “limited” due to a lack of clarity from New York State around exactly which cannabis products can be legally sold and under what circumstances.
Shop inspections mostly occur after police receive a constituent complaint. Then, a task force member checks out the business, and if warranted, issues a fire or building code violation.
Unfortunately, Spano noted, these violations are corrected and the businesses reopen within a few days.
Officials also point out that the state has yet to carry out a single inspection in the City of Yonkers. This despite legislation signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul that contains stiff fines and civil penalties for selling cannabis without a license and widely publicized crackdowns in Ithaca and Binghamton.
In a statement, the Office of Cannabis Management said the agency and the state Department of Taxation and Finance “will continue to work in partnership with local authorities to enforce these laws.”
But that promise doesn’t carry water with everyone.
State Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay (R-Oswego) told NY Cannabis Insider that “the proliferation of illegal pot shops was completely predictable when marijuana was legalized, but the state failed to take actions to avoid it or respond to it in a timely manner.
“The Hochul Administration dragged its heels to get enforcement efforts rolling, and now they’re playing catch-up,” Barclay said.
For one time, at least, a Democrat and a Republican agreed.
“It’s time for the state to get off its keisters and let us know what’s up,” Spano said. “We don’t want any dirty products, and we don’t want any kids being exposed.”
In June, the Yonkers City Council passed a moratorium on smoke shops of any kind in the city to get ahead of the situation where shops selling tobacco products often have marijuana items in plain sight or stashed away.
The moratorium is in effect through Nov. 1, after which time the council is expected to adopt new regulations governing how and where these unlicensed smoke shops can operate.
The moratorium was necessary, said Yonkers Council Majority Leader Tasha Diaz, because since legalization in 2021, illegal smoke shops have been “popping up left and right. It was just getting too crazy.”
Diaz stressed that her main concern was the danger posed to children, since some of the THC-infused edibles have images on them designed to appeal to children.
“They resemble Willy Wonka or the Sour Patch kids,” she said, and kids think they’re candy.
“No one knows what’s in this stuff,” she added. “It could even be laced with fentanyl.”