Stem illegal pot shops
Pols push new law to go after rogue sellers that hurt legit biz
A renewed push to weed out the estimated 2,500 unlicensed cannabis shops in the city rolled forward Friday, another effort in what so far has been a largely losing battle.
Two state lawmakers rallied at City Hall to advocate for a state budget provision that could vest the city with broader authority to carry out enforcement actions on illicit pot stores. And a city lawmaker promised to reintroduce a plan that would allow the shops to be targeted under New York City’s half-century-old nuisance abatement law, which allows the city to close certain businesses.
City Councilman Keith Powers, the Manhattan Democrat spearheading the city-level plan, said he expected the legislation to be reintroduced next week. It would be a novel use of the nuisance abatement law, which was first used to crack down on brothels around Times Square, but was later expanded to target drug dens and liquor stores that sell to minors.
Powers introduced the plan in November, and it picked up more than 22 sponsors in the 51-member chamber. But with the flipping of the calendar, the bill must be reintroduced; Powers said the Council is “moving at warp speed” on the plan, and that it would be put forward following technical tweaks.
“Obviously, we know the urgency,” Powers said by phone. “We’re hearing every day about new shops opening up.”
Mayor Adams, who could sign the bill into law if it is passed, has backed the bill, Powers said.
The Democratic mayor has also called on state legislators to pass a new law vesting the city with greater authority to shutter illicit cannabis shops. He has claimed he would wipe the stores off the city’s streetscape “within 30 days” if given full control over enforcement.
Gov. Hochul, who has presided over the bumpy marijuana legalization rollout, has acknowledged that the process has been disastrous. She has moved to help the city target the unlicensed shops.
In 2022, New York State began to issue its first retail marijuana licenses. But a sluggish permit approval process has allowed a sprawling market of gray market sellers to crop up in New York City.
The city has 33 legal cannabis retailers, according to the state Cannabis Management Office. The unlicensed joints appear to be challenging the legal stores’ ability to take off, and many of the stores target kids, according to officials.
The budget plan Hochul is negotiating with state lawmakers this year would bolster the power of the state’s cannabis office and empower city authorities to execute state-issued closure orders on illegal shops, according to the governor’s office.
In an address to lawmakers last month laying out her priorities, Hochul decried “illegal cannabis vendors who flagrantly violate our laws.” She vowed to “empower localities to go after the unlicensed shops, prosecute businesses that sell to minors and padlock their doors faster.”
State Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar and Sen. Leroy Comrie, two Queens Democrats, convened a rally on the City Hall steps on Friday to urge their colleagues to push the proposed pot shop provisions through.
Rajkumar and Comrie introduced a bill called the SMOKEOUT Act intended to enhance the city’s powers to shutter illegal pot shops, a push that Hochul then took up in state budget talks.
“We’re going to take all these illegal cannabis shops, and we’re going to smoke them out,” Rajkumar declared at the rally. “These illegal shops are hotbeds of crime.”
The state-level push has backing in the City Council. Two weeks ago, Councilwoman Lynn Schulman, a Queens Democrat, introduced a resolution calling on the Legislature to pass the SMOKEOUT Act. The resolution has seven sponsors so far.
A 28-year-old man has been arrested for slashing a guard at an East Village church after he was seen urinating on a parked car, cops said Friday.
Roberto Ortiz, who resides in a men’s shelter in the Bowery, was apprehended for the Jan. 21 attack about 10 p.m. Thursday.
He’s facing attempted murder, assault, weapons possession and other charges for slashing John Mach, who complained when he saw Ortiz urinating on a car parked outside the Church of the Immaculate Conception on E. 14th St. near First Ave., police said.
“He was urinating and doing all sorts of nuisance,” Mach, 57, told the Daily News shortly after the attack while sporting a large, fresh scar and several stitches on the left side of his neck. “He was looking for problem. As a trained counselor, I can tell.”
It was not disclosed how detectives identified Ortiz as the slasher. Cops last month released surveillance images of the attacker, asking anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact investigators.
Ortiz had threatened Mach and his co-workers with a box cutter before lunging at the security guard.
“My duty is to guard my church and keep everyone safe,” Mach said. “He did look like someone with a mental health problem and I did not want anyone to get in trouble … He kept saying that he’ll slash me and my colleagues, but then he went away.”
Ortiz soon returned but was wearing a different jacket when he cut Mach, leaving his victim with a wound that nearly killed him.
“He just came and slashed my throat,” Mach said.
Mach ran behind the suspect for a block, to E. 13th St., while his throat bled from the wound.
He wrapped the thermal shirt he was wearing around his neck as a makeshift bandage. His attacker got away, but only after being smacked by good Samaritans trying to slow his escape, according to Mach.
Mach was admitted to Beth Israel hospital, where he received 16 stitches to the long gash running nearly the entire length of the left side of his throat.
Ortiz’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending Friday.
A woman with bruises to her face and knees was found dead inside a Bronx park early Friday, cops said.
A park-goer made the grisly discovery inside Walter Gladwin Park near the corner of E. 175th St. and Arthur Ave. in East Tremont at about 5 a.m., cops said.
The woman, who was wearing a blue jacket, was found near a green shipping container alongside a park path, images from the scene show. Dead leaves were sticking out of her hair.
A pair of red sneakers were found near the woman, who was holding a white plastic bag.
The woman was declared dead at the scene. Her name was not immediately disclosed.
Other than the injuries to her face and knees, there appeared to be no other trauma on her body, cops said.
An autopsy has been slated to determine how the woman died.