Two Years of the Pot-Shop Plague

It’s been two years since The Post started flagging the explosion of illegal pot shops, and they still plague the city — flipping the middle finger to law and order as every neighborhood stares at criminal enterprises operating openly in its midst.

The city now holds all of 34 licensed shops, but they compete at a disadvantage — and the difference is far from obvious to the casual customer.

And the city’s efforts to close them down don’t show a lot more feck: We reported this week on a pair of Queens shops back in biz just a day after the cops closed them down.

The root fault is the Legislature’s for botched legalization that also protected black-market dealers, so seedy shop owners can flout the law in broad daylight.

To her credit, Gov. Hochul has announced several measures to crack down on the spread of the illegal shops, including steeper fines and making it easier for local law-enforcement to shut down illicit shops.

But of course the Legislature is in no rush to pass anything: Too many lawmakers are more worried about treating criminals gently than about protecting neighborhoods.

Not only are these shops crime magnets, but their uncontrolled spread eats up storefront space that could hold businesses that actually benefit (non-pothead) locals.

Worst is the message sent by masses of criminal enterprises operating routinely everywhere: Either nobody cares, or no one can do anything.

Two years on, you can’t do anything about a blight on your neighborhood. And New York’s powers-that-be don’t care.