By Ed Hersh
The Upper West Side Coalition of Block Associations and Community Groups held a virtual meeting Wednesday night with representatives of the New York State Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office to learn more about where legal marijuana dispensaries might be located, how community groups like theirs might be involved, and any enforcement actions that are currently being taken against the “smoke shops” and “weed trucks” that are selling marijuana illegally on the Upper West Side, as recently reported in West Side Rag.
“How should and could block associations engage on this issue?” Coalition President Steve Anderson asked at the outset of the meeting. But beyond what has been previously reported, the government representatives provided few specifics on a timeline for the regulations that will govern legal dispensaries, or the formal process for community input beyond emails and letters, or any enforcement actions that are being or will be taken.
Pascale Bernard, deputy director of inter-governmental relations, and Philip Rumsey, manager of inter-governmental outreach, represented the OCM. Rumsey gave a detailed PowerPoint presentation on how last year’s Marijuana Revenue and Taxation Act (MRTA) operates. The law, he said, is “geared toward social justice, economic development and public safety.”
Bernard said the regulations for the legal dispensaries are still being written and therefore, licenses for them aren’t even being considered yet. She wouldn’t give a timeline for the regulations to be finished, but said the first legal dispensaries in the state could open before the end of 2022.
Rumsey added that “one of the elements found in the legislation is notification” to municipalities. “And community boards are part of that process”; they can write letters supporting or opposing applicants for dispensary licenses.
Of course, the legal dispensaries have yet to open, and so, stores currently selling cannabis products above a certain level of potency are illegal. As we reported, those stores are proliferating on the UWS. Coalition Secretary Liz DeVito relayed a question that WSR submitted in advance: “What is being done to deal with this spread of illegal pot shops, beyond sending them a letter, and when the legal stores finally arrive, what mechanisms are in place to actually close the illegal ones down?”
Justin Tatham, an Assistant District Attorney, said “we’re going prosecute those selling marijuana (illegally) when the regulations go into effect” and work with the NYPD. But when asked about current illegal sales, his answer was vague, saying he wasn’t aware of any current investigations, but that “we have no policy that is directed toward not prosecuting” the stores.
Steve Anderson of the coalition jumped in. “We all see what is happening on the Upper West Side. We see that there are trucks and retail selling is going on right now,” he said. “We’re not seeing any significant enforcement” and wondered if they are not being investigated by the NYPD because the DA’s office has made clear they won’t be prosecuted. “We need to know where we stand,” he said.
Estelle Strykers-Santiago of the District Attorney’s office responded to Anderson, but offered no further specifics, other than “we’re coordinating with all the different precincts as well as bringing the special narcotics prosecutor’s office to coordinate with us. The DA knows Justin and I are on this call,” she said, and “we are going to bring this information (about illegal sales) back to him and see if we can follow up with you on strategies that we can talk about.”
You can learn more about the MRTA law and offer comments on the regulations on their website.
Heads up:
Pot stores are all over the LES and East Village – unbelievable to see how fast this has happened.
Pot stores pay high rent and can easily push out regular neighborhood shops (already facing challenges from high rent, e-commerce, crime and restaurant sheds)
Yeah, but… “social justice” and stuff.
Meanwhile, “we’re going to bring the information back…and SEE IF WE CAN follow up on strategies that we CAN TALK ABOUT.” And that’s from a DA office charged with enforcing current laws about currently illegal products/activity. They might as well have said “shut up, we don’t care.”
There are no “regular neighbor shops” being pushed out because of these post stores.
There is already plenty of vacant storefront space and nobody is being displaced. Three pot stores recently opened near my apartment and they each took over space that had been vacant for a while.
That said, it’s very distressing to see these stores. I often see people standing in front of them openly smoking pot. These stores are a quality of life problem.
It’s unfortunate that these pot stores are proliferating.
Of all the problems faced by us New Yorkers, some guy smoking a joint on Broadway seems to be pretty far down the list.
So the FDA just banned Juul, citing it’s harm to kids. Meanwhile, every day after school thousands of kids in NYC leave class and go to the seemingly dozens of pot stores to buy a variety of cannabis products. We are not a serious place….
Where we stand is that there won’t be any change until the dispensary laws are written and in effect. When that happens the situation will change, somehow.
Why is it taking so long to write these regulations? Just copy the ones that Jersey has. Everyday that goes by the City and state are just throwing money away that could be coming in to their coffers.
I am so disappointed in Alvin Bragg. I thought he’d bring a pragmatic approach to law enforcement, particularly when Preet Bharara endorsed him. But his hands off approach to basic quality of life issues is creating a climate of lawlessness and police apathy that’s hurting the city. These non answers from the DA’s representatives are indicative of the problem. Prosecute the illegal sales until legal sales are permitted. Full stop. It shouldn’t be more complicated.
Get over yourselves on being anti-pot. It should be sold as freely as cigarettes, considering the differences & similarities.
I’m an attorney here on the UWS working with various entities to get cannabis licenses. We are in the midst of a sea change in policy about cannabis here in NY. During my lifetime, the pendulum swung way in the wrong direction as far as cannabis enforcement and the destructive impact it had on primarily minority communities in our state. At the moment the pendulum has swung way in the other direction towards permissiveness. Once the licenses are issued and licensed businesses open, you will then see enforcement against the unlicensed entities. Ask yourself this – if you opened an unlicensed bar and told the NY Post about it, how long would it take the State Liquor Authority to show up at your door? There will be similar enforcement in the cannabis space.