Rogue landlords who knowingly lease space to illegal pot shops in New York City will be slapped with fines of up to $10,000 under new legislation approved by the City Council.
“This is a game changer because right now enforcement efforts are aimed at the sellers and not at who is leasing to them,” said the bill’s sponsor Lynn Schulman (D-Queens), shortly before the Council voted unanimously Thursday to approve it.
The bill will require the city Sheriff’s office, NYPD, and other authorities to issue written warnings to a landlord whenever fines or other penalties are handed out to a tenant for running unlicensed marijuana businesses.
If the shop is penalized again and the landlord has not yet begun eviction proceedings — such as was the case earlier this year with a shop that operated smugly across the street from City Hall — the property owner would face $5,000 fines for first offenses and $10,000 for additional offenses.
There are currently six legal cannabis dispensaries operating in New York City.
There are more than 1,500 illegal pot shops.
Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have been trying to tackle the widespread problem of illegal pot shops since recreational marijuana use became legal statewide in 2021 by directing crackdowns on sellers, with much less attention paid to landlords.
