It’s been two years since The Post started flagging the explosion of iIlegal 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. (Not that, let’s face it, most buyers really care.)
The feckless state Office of Cannabis Management doesn’t even pretend to know how many there are.
And the city’s efforts to close them down don’t show a lot more feck: We just reported this week on a pair of Queens shops back in biz just a day after being closed down by the cops.
Maybe the effort to go after their landlords will start paying off, but so far we don’t see it.
The root fault is the Legislature’s (and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s) for passing a legalization law that also wound up giving some protections to 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 be used for businesses that actually benefit (non-pothead) locals.
Worst of all 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.