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Syracuse, N.Y. — Another lawsuit has been filed accusing the city of Syracuse of illegally shutting down a retail shop after a state and local crackdown on illicit sales of marijuana in the city in September.
The new lawsuit, filed Tuesday in State Supreme Court, asks a judge to lift a city order that shut Smoke City, a shop at 1105 N. Salina St. The shop has been closed since September under the city codes department’s declaration that it is “unfit for human occupancy.” The suit also seeks damages, amounting to more than $30,000, for lost revenues and other costs during the shutdown.
“The City is reviewing the complaint and will respond in Court,” Greg Loh, the city’s chief policy officer, said in a statement to syracuse.com today.
This is the second such case filed against the city since the September crackdown. The earlier case involves a shop called T’s Wireless in downtown Syracuse. In that case, a judge has already issued an order allowing T’s Wireless to reopen. The case has since been transferred to federal court.
In September, Smoke City, T’s Wireless and three other shops were shut down by the city following inspection by agents of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management and Department of Taxation and Finance. The state agencies cited the shops for possessing illicit marijuana and/or selling it without proper licenses.
The city codes office then visited the five shops and declared each of them unfit for occupancy, while contending they were in violation of city codes and/or ordinances.
But the lawsuits for T’s Wireless and Smoke City claim the city exceeded its jurisdiction and violated its own laws by shutting the shops down as part of an illicit cannabis case. Both shops are represented by lawyer Brady O’Malley of the Nave Law Firm.
“Defendants’ improvisational abuse of code enforcement power as a means to ‘regulate’ the local cannabis market plainly violates state and local law,” the lawsuit for Smoke City says. “The City of Syracuse has no jurisdiction or authority to regulate or enforce the Cannabis Law outside the expressly limited confines of City of Syracuse Local Law No. 15 of 2022.”
The law referenced by the lawsuit is one adopted by the Common Council and signed by Mayor Ben Walsh late last year in an attempt to stop the proliferation of shops illegally selling marijuana.
In both the T’s Wireless case and the Smoke City case, the lawsuits state that each shop has a valid state permit to sell CBD and hemp products, which are regulated and licensed separately from those selling marijuana. (Marijuana has a higher level of THC than the hemp cannabis products).
The lawsuit filed on behalf of Smoke City claims the shop did not sell marijuana illegally.
The suit further claims the state’s Office of Cannabis Management has indicated it will drop the charges of illicit management sales against Smoke City.
O’Malley said he’s been advised by the cannabis office that illicit marijuana sales charges will be dropped against both shops, but he hasn’t yet received that notice in writing.
The lawsuit also notes that Smoke City had been allowed to remain open for two weeks after the initial citation by the state agencies on Sept. 12. It wasn’t ordered to close until the codes officers came in Sept, 25.
According to the lawsuit, the city codes enforcement director, Jake Dishaw, told Smoke City owner Jalal Shqair the shutdown was ordered “because you are selling weed.” Dishaw also “falsely alleged” that Shqair “had attempted to sell marijuana to a ‘confidential informant’ “ following the state inspection, the lawsuit says.
The case involving T’s Wireless, which has reopened at 410 S. Warren St., has been amended to include a charge that city officials, including Walsh himself, acted with racial and ethnic bias against the five shops, all of which are owned by people who are Arab-American, Palestinian-American, and/or Muslim.
That claim was not included in the lawsuit filed on behalf of Smoke City, whose owner is Jalal Shqair.
The city’s top lawyer, Susan Katzoff, responded to the bias claim on Nov. 30 by calling it “a baseless and transparent attempt to distract from their unlawful behavior.”
O’Malley said further claims may be added to the Smoke City suit. The primary aim of the initial filing to obtain a restraining order allowing the shop to reopen, he said.
The T’s Wireless case was transferred from state court to federal court, at the city’s request.
In addition to T’s Wireless and Smoke City, the shops shut down in September were:
- EXscape Exotic, a smoke shop and vape lounge, at 167 Marshall St.
- NY Exotic, a smoke shop, at 123 Marshall St.
- North Side Express, a convenience store, at 400 Wolf St.
Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.