Where there’s $moke

Unlicensed weed shops targeted by robbers: Adams

The Big Apple’s slew of illegal weed shops are prime targets for robbers, draining crucial police resources — and state penalties are no help because they’re laughably low, Mayor Adams said Tuesday.

The mayor ripped the situation at an unrelated news conference in Queens when he addressed Saturday’s slaying at the Level Up Exotics smoke shop in Harlem.

“We’re finding that smoke shops, because they are a cash business, that they are contributing to our robberies,” Adams said. “And we knew it was only a matter of time before you’d start to see some of them materializing to shootings.”

He said the state’s 2021 legalization of recreational pot meant that “if you’re [illegally] selling cannabis, you’re going to get a criminal-court summons.”

“You know what the fine is? Twenty-five dollars,” the mayor said. “It’s like they’re laughing at us,” he said of illegal peddlers — while demanding that state lawmakers give the NYPD the power to do inspections and confiscate goods at illegal shops.

Adams, addressing The Post’s Saturday scoop involving an unlicensed cannabis store operating across the street from City Hall — in a building that houses some of his staffers and various city agencies — responded, “We raided it twice. And their attitude was, ‘Hey, you know what? You’re gonna give me a $50 fine, a $25 fine, and I’m making that in the first second.’ Just doesn’t add up,” Hizzoner said.

On Tuesday, The Post found the store closed, with items still on the shelves but the display case empty.

“What we must do is change the enforcement,” Adams said.

“And that’s my ask of the lawmakers: to give the authority to the Police Department to go in to do inspections, to confiscate. We have been taking action, but the ability to enforce is outpacing what we can actually do.”

The city sheriff ’s office also can collect related fines: up to $250 for selling cannabis products without a license. But usually the shops close down for a day or so, then open back up, city officials gripe.

The NYPD recently filed four lawsuits against Manhattan shops that were allegedly caught selling weed without a license by undercover cops in December. The suits are seeking to stop the shops from selling and to impose $1,000 fines every day they illegally operate.

Last week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg also vowed to move to evict illegal-shop owners.

Adams added Tuesday, “We need to have a law to make landlords accountable.”

“If you are knowingly leasing your space to someone who is selling illegal products, you need to be held accountable, also.”