New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Tuesday that retail owners must evict tenants who sell marijuana without a license. New York plans to evict the tenants of a store selling illegal marijuana, Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Tuesday. The shops in Manhattan that sell cannabis without a license face eviction, in addition to fines of up to $5,000 and confiscation of their products. According to the release, the Bragg office has already sent letters to more than 400 illegal smokehouses in the area. In the coming weeks, the DA’s office said it will begin notifying landlords that they must begin eviction proceedings — and may even issue its own eviction notices against tenants if landlords don’t act within five days.
“If owners and landlords do not initiate eviction proceedings against these delinquent tenants in a timely manner, or do not follow through diligently, my office is prepared to take over and pursue eviction proceedings,” Bragg said at a news conference. The city also filed four lawsuits Tuesday against East Village smoke shops for illegal sales and public nuisance, Crain’s reported. The landlords of the shops were also named as defendants. The city has issued 66 retail cannabis licenses to stores so far, and Bragg’s office plans to make it a priority to evict illegal shops operating near licensed stores, Commercial Observer reports. Only two so far – Housing Works Cannabis Co. at 750 Broadway and Smacked at 1 Bleecker Street are open.
Meanwhile, there are about 1,400 unlicensed shops selling cannabis in Manhattan alone, said Borough President Mark Levine. “You can’t just open a store and sell marijuana,” Adams said. “There are rules and we have to actually follow them.” The threat of shop leases is the city’s latest attempt to crack down on illegal smoke shops. NYC launched a task force late last year that visited 53 stores over 11 days in late November and early December, but later inspected only five the City reported. Both shops revisited by the task force were full of illegal cannabis between inspections. Although this latest effort is focused only on Manhattan, Adams said the borough plans to share the results of the program with other districts. “We want to give New York’s legal cannabis market a fair chance to succeed,” Bragg said. “I hope to see full cooperation between building owners and commercial property owners to implement this education and criminal justice strategy.”