UES Weed Shop Raided, Closed In Unlicensed Cannabis Crackdown

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Over the weekend, the New York City Sheriff's Office raided an illegal smoke shop on the Upper East Side as part of their ongoing crackdown on unauthorized smoke and cannabis outlets across the city's five boroughs.

A multi-agency raid led by New York City sheriff's officers led to the shutdown of Best Budz, located on East 86th Street between Second and Third Avenue.

City officials said that the shutdown was part of Operation Padlock to Protect, a sustained multi-agency enforcement action to shut down illegal smoke and cannabis shops across the five boroughs.

During the initial week of enforcement, the New York City Sheriff’s Joint Compliance Task Force, comprising members from the Sheriff’s Office, the NYPD and the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), sealed 75 locations and imposed fines totaling nearly $6 million.

Of the 75 closed cannabis shops, 18 were located within Manhattan, city officials told Patch.

"For too long, illegal operators have posed a threat to our children, our public safety, and our quality of life, and they have undermined those justice-involved, legal businesses that are trying to succeed," Mayor Eric Adams said. "With this coordinated and sustained multi-agency enforcement, we will help usher in a thriving, safe, and just legal cannabis market that our city deserves."

The Sheriff's Joint Compliance Task Force affirmed their commitment to conducting coordinated operations in neighborhoods across all five boroughs. This involves both initial inspections and subsequent follow-ups.

In instances where retailers are instructed to be sealed, local NYPD precincts oversee these locations to ensure adherence and promptly notify the Sheriff’s Office of any breaches of the seal order.

During its inaugural week of operations, the task force carried out 150 inspections of unlicensed establishments located near schools or houses of worship allegedly selling cannabis, THC edibles, THC vape products, flavored tobacco, flavored vapes, or other tobacco items within the jurisdictions of the NYPD’s eight borough commands.

Inspections resulted in:

• More than 70 cease-and-desist orders and 75 shops were sealed.
• A total of 370 notices of violations held 3,878 counts of violations across NYPD, DCWP, and the Sheriff’s Office.
• More than $5,960,000 in civil penalties were issued.

Recreational marijuana is legal in New York, but legally regulated stores have been slow to get started. There are just 23 legal dispensaries in Manhattan.

In contrast, hundreds of unauthorized cannabis dispensaries have blossomed across the city, threatening to smoke out the legal ones, according to city officials.

"The legalization of cannabis was long overdue and represented an important step towards righting past injustices," U.S. Representative Dan Goldman said. "However, the unchecked proliferation of unlicensed and unregulated smoke shops endangers consumers, children, and communities. These unlicensed shops undermine the time, effort, and money that law-abiding New Yorkers invested to obtain legal licenses."