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When this reporter took a recent stroll through Washington Square Park, the iconic hub of New York City\u2019s Greenwich Village, the scene was dramatically changed from the ongoing cannabis-themed festival that had become the norm for the past two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now just two tables were set up in the central area around the big circular fountain at the park\u2019s center. The folk at the tables were chanting the familiar refrain of \u201cpre-rolls, eighths, edibles.\u201d But when I made clear I was a reporter and wanted to talk, they responded with a terse \u201cno comment\u201d and motioned me on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was a stark contrast to my past journalistic excursions through the park since cannabis was legalized in New York state. Then, as recently as early summer, scores of tables were doing a brisk business and joyous noise and vibrancy (as well as cannabis smoke) infused the air. And the purveyors had been eager to talk to a reporter\u2014to propound on how their activities were legal under terms of the state\u2019s Marihuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, it was almost\u2014although not quite\u2014akin to the pre-legalization atmosphere over the generations starting in the late 1960s when the park was a notorious hotspot for strictly illicit pot sales, with dealers circling the iconic fountain and nearby arch, pitching\u00a0sotto voce<\/em>\u00a0to passers-by: \u201cLoose joints, loose joints.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The summer after MRTA was passed at the end of March 2021, cannabis vendors started setting up tables in the park,\u00a0openly hawking<\/a>\u00a0their wares. The local online newspaper, Village Sun<\/a><\/em>, which has closely covered the scene and attendant controversy, called it a \u201ccannabis casbah.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The current crackdown follows months of\u00a0mounting pressure<\/a>\u00a0from both the\u00a0Washington Square Association, the civic organization that promotes the upkeep of the park and the neighborhood\u2019s\u00a0Community Board 2.\u00a0These entities complained that magic mushrooms were being sold as well as cannabis (with no cover of law at all). They also called for action on the park\u2019s northwest corner, where hard drugs such as crack and smack are still being peddled, in old-school\u00a0sotto voce<\/em>\u00a0manner. In late June, a man was\u00a0fatally stabbed<\/a>\u00a0on this corner.\u00a0<\/p>\n And in late August, a man was\u00a0found dead<\/a>\u00a0in what police called a \u201cpossible drug OD\u201d around the chess tables at the park\u2019s southwest corner.<\/p>\n There was also a violent incident on July 25, when the city\u00a0Parks Department\u00a0administrator for Washington Square, Will Morrison, was\u00a0attacked<\/a>\u00a0while videoing \u201cillegal activity,\u201d and suffered a fractured elbow. This happened on the park\u2019s east side, by the Garibaldi statue just outside the central circle\u2014near the cannabis casbah and far from the white-powder hotspot on the other side of the square. An\u00a0arrest was made<\/a>\u00a0in the attack about a month later, although few more details were forthcoming.<\/p>\n Whatever these unfortunate incidents may or may not have had to do with the cannabis vending, the complaints were lumped together by the neighborhood\u2019s pillars of respectability. Community Board 2 chair Susan Kent\u00a0told the Village Sun<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of advocacy for legalization. Now this illegal activity is compromising them. There\u2019s no justification for selling drugs illegally. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n And in the crackdown, the cops have been\u00a0imposing restrictions<\/a>\u00a0even on vendors of artistic creations\u2014for instance, keeping them a minimum number of feet away from benches, the central fountain and monuments, barring them from using beach umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some vendors took to marching around the fountain to protest, but purveyors of paintings and hand-crafted jewelry have now also been\u00a0largely cleared<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In late August, the cops made a\u00a0slew of arrests<\/a>\u00a0of the hard drug dealers at the park\u2019s seedy northwest corner.<\/p>\n With the cannabis casbah, the mere threat of arrest seems to have sufficed. However, in a real stain on the park\u2019s cannabis scene, three remnant vendors were\u00a0arrested<\/a>\u00a0on September 7 for making underage sales. Although accounts were not explicit on this point, the arrests seem to have been the result of a sting operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n City Councilmember Erik Bottcher, whose district adjoins Greenwich Village on the north, has been an\u00a0aggressive voice<\/a>\u00a0for cleaning up the park. He\u2019s calling for beefing up the NYPD\u2019s 6th Precinct, which covers the park, with more officers. Councilmember Christopher Marte, whose district actually includes Washington Square, is\u00a0calling for<\/a>\u00a0a \u201cmore balanced approach\u201d and trying to broker a dialogue with stakeholders.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the Sun\u2019<\/em>s coverage of the new battle for Washington Square has been in-depth and dogged, it also betrays its prejudices. In an\u00a0editorial<\/a> entitled \u201cTarget the Drug Dealers,\u201d it accepts without question the phrase \u201cillegal pot vendors.\u201d Before the crackdown, the cannabis merchants took great pains to emphasize that they did not consider themselves \u201cillegal\u201d\u2014merely unlicensed. Many exploited so-called \u201cloopholes<\/a>\u201d (a term rejected by the vendors), such as offering cannabis as a promotional gratuity with the sale of an\u00a0objet d\u2019art.<\/em>\u00a0Some said they intended to get licensed and were meanwhile complying with the letter of the law. Under MRTA, they pointed out, if no money is exchanged for the cannabis, it\u2019s not a \u201csale.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In another term often rejected by the vendors themselves, this homespun sector constitutes what some observers call a \u201cgray market,\u201d with a degree of legal ambiguity, at least\u2014not an outright illicit \u201cblack market.\u201d<\/p>\n The sweep of the Washington Square casbah by local cops comes as New York state authorities are stepping up their crackdown on unlicensed retail stores, which was\u00a0launched in the spring<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n On June 22, Gov. Kathy Hochul\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0in a press release that enforcement actions by state authorities had resulted in the seizure of at least 1,000 pounds and nearly $11 million in \u201cillicit products.\u201d The enforcement drive comes under the purview of a\u00a0new law\u00a0<\/a>signed by Hochul earlier that month, allowing state agencies to levy hefty fines and seize inventory of businesses that sell cannabis without a license.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Manhattan District Attorney\u2019s Office (now a focus of national attention due to its\u00a0case against Donald Trump<\/a>) has also got in on the act. On July 18, it\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that the owner of nearly a dozen \u201cillegal\u201d cannabis shops, Rami Alzandani, is to pay $103,000 to the state Department of Tax & Finance and forfeit another $300,000 in proceeds as part of a non-prosecution agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCannabis legalization in New York State was designed to advance racial equity and fairness, and the rules must be followed,\u201d District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a\u00a0statement<\/a>. \u201cPublic safety is also harmed when there is such a huge proliferation of unlicensed and unregulated storefronts selling cannabis products that have not been properly inspected.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n City authorities are imposing their own measures to deter unlicensed storefronts. In July, Queens Councilmember Lynn Schulman successfully\u00a0shepherded through\u00a0a bill,\u00a0Intro 1001<\/a>, that imposes stiff fines on landlords who rent to unlicensed cannabis outlets\u2014$1,000 initially and then another $2,000 for failure to evict in a timely manner.\u00a0<\/p>\n Upper East Side Councilmember Julie Menin is now\u00a0pushing<\/a>\u00a0a bill,\u00a0Intro 995<\/a>, that would require the city\u00a0Health Department\u00a0and\u00a0Consumer Protection Department\u00a0to launch a \u201cpublic awareness campaign on the dangers of purchasing cannabis or cannabis products from unlicensed cannabis retailers.\u201d<\/p>\n But the licensed sector is hardly taking up the slack. By a city government\u00a0estimate<\/a>\u00a0this summer, New York City\u2019s unlicensed cannabis shops outnumber licensed ones by about 250-to-1.\u00a0As an Aug. 18 account in The<\/em>\u00a0New York Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0noted, under initial projections after the passage of MRTA, there were supposed to be more than 150 licensed dispensaries operating statewide by now. Instead, the figure stands at a mere\u00a023 legal dispensaries, and many of them only offer deliveries.\u00a0<\/p>\n One obstacle, ironically, has been a\u00a0slew of lawsuits<\/a>\u00a0challenging the program\u2019s \u201csocial equity\u201d provisions from would-be entrepreneurs who feel they are being unfairly excluded. The latest, filed in August, is from a group of four military veterans who became disabled during their service. They say they met all requirements for the first round of licensing, reserved for \u201cequity\u201d applicants\u2014with one exception. To qualify for the first-round Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CUARD) licenses, an applicant (or a family member) must have a pre-legalization conviction on a cannabis-related offense.\u00a0The veterans accuse the state Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) and affiliated Cannabis Control Board (CCB) of going beyond MRTA\u2019s mandate by imposing this condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe MRTA had already established a goal to award 50% of all adult-use licenses to social and economic equity applicants. But instead of following the law, OCM and CCB created their own version of \u2018social equity\u2019 and determined for themselves which individuals would get priority to enter New York\u2019s nascent adult-use cannabis market,\u201d read a\u00a0press release<\/a> from the challengers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another group, led by companies already licensed under the state medical marijuana program (but still barred from the adult-use sector),\u00a0filed a similar suit<\/a>\u00a0in March. But they did not demand an actual suspension of licensing.\u00a0<\/p>\n The veterans did. And the judge who\u2019s hearing both cases, Justice Kevin R. Bryant of the State Supreme Court in Kingston, on August 7 issued an injunction that froze further licensing until regulators start accepting applications beyond the equity program. This is slated to start in the fall, which Justice Bryant said would make both lawsuits moot.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Cannabis Association of New York\u00a0nonetheless\u00a0issued a statement<\/a> saying it was \u201cseverely disappointed\u201d by Bryant\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n On August 25, Bryant issued an order that exempted some 30 applicants from the injunction. These were said by the OCM to be in the final stages of their application process. But four days later, Bryant\u00a0reversed that ruling<\/a> after hearing additional arguments from attorneys for the veterans.<\/p>\n So, at press time, the licensing process remains suspended.<\/p>\n Thankfully, a positive alternative to the unlicensed casbah in Washington Square Park has emerged\u2014albeit on a very tentative basis.\u00a0\u00a0This was the open-air\u00a0Cannabis Growers Showcase, held August 10 in New Paltz, a college town some 85 miles up the Hudson River from New York City, in Ulster County and the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. Convened in a parking lot behind the village hall, the first-of-its-kind event was hailed as a\u00a0big success<\/a>, with long lines despite intermittent rain showers that day.\u00a0<\/p>\n Under this model, the cannabis green-market must be organized by a licensed retailer\u2014in this case,\u00a0Legacy Dispensers\u00a0of Albany. Such pop-up markets are intended to help relieve the state\u2019s cannabis surplus. Growers produced massive quantities for what they hoped would be a robust market\u2014much of it now in danger of\u00a0rotting in warehouses<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re excited as well, to see this turnout, their product moving,\u201d Legacy\u2019s Jay Peterson told\u00a0CBS News-NY<\/a>, speaking of the beleaguered cannabis cultivators.<\/p>\n The post Crackdown on Cannabis \u2018Gray Market\u2019 In NYC Arrives<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
When this reporter took a recent stroll through Washington Square Park, the iconic hub of New York City\u2019s Greenwich Village, the scene was dramatically changed from the ongoing cannabis-themed festival that had become the norm for the past two years.\u00a0 Now just two tables were set up in the centralContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":68443,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,17398,17399,90,208,593,16173,16751,7029],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68444,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68442\/revisions\/68444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"New](\"https:\/\/cannabisnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/NYC-cannabis-signs.jpg\")
<\/a>Clearing Out the \u2018Cannabis Casbah\u2019\u00a0<\/h4>\n
Stepped-Up Raids on Storefronts<\/h4>\n
<\/a>Persisting Obstacles to Licensed Sector\u00a0\u00a0<\/h4>\n
First Licensed Open-Air Market\u00a0<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Crackdown on Cannabis \u2018Gray Market\u2019 In NYC Arrives<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"