July 31, 2024
Deputy Mayor Philip Banks, III, Public Safety:Good afternoon. We're here today to make a very important announcement about public safety and quality of life, but it's actually a little bit more than quality of life. It was about an industry that said that they were not going to listen to the rules. They were not going to be concerned about quality of life, and they were going to peddle this poison to our children.
Mayor Adams says, “Nah, not on my watch.” Governor Hochuil says, “No, it is not going to happen.” I certainly want to give a thanks to the governor because her partnership, what the administration did coming together with Mayor Adams' administration was actually fantastic. We like to coin it as people talked, they listened, they took action, and now you're going to start to hear the results of what that partnership looked like.
With that today, we're joined by, of course, the mayor of the City of New York, Eric Adams. We're honored to have the governor, the president of our Governor Hochul here. You're also going to hear from the sheriff of the City of New York, Anthony Miranda. You will also hear from Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. I believe that we will have the Bronx borough president, Vanessa Gibson, here. Councilmember Eric Dinowitz is here as well. I believe I saw Councilmember Gale Brewer here as well, and certainly the chief of the Department for the NYPD, Jeff Maddrey, is here, and our Commissioner Kaz Daughtry. With that, I'd like to introduce the mayor of the City of New York, Mayor Eric Adams.
Mayor Eric Adams:Thanks so much, DM, for just the job that we're doing around this issue, and you're right. This is probably one of the greatest examples of government coordination and operation. It's something that started out when Councilwoman Brewer started to see in these shops opening in her district. She reached out, and then other electors started to observe the same things in their districts.
We realized that we did not want to go backwards and criminalize the actions of having small quantities of marijuana. We knew that these locations were becoming not only eyesores, but they became really focal points for criminal behavior. The team sat down with the governor and started laying out what our observations are and what the missing pieces were, and we were able to make real headways.
I think that we caught this at the right time, because as you look at what's happening in the industry, there's a clear switch to really start focusing on our children. When you look at some of the products that are familiar to young people to attract their attention, and even using something as a video game, and inside it is containing cannabis type products, it says it all. This is a clear focus of building a generation that will be really attracted to illegal cannabis. When you look at the colors, it really defined the scope of this problem.
What this team has done, state lawmakers, and what the city is doing now, when you do the math, the governor was just sharing with me that when you look at the 750 locations that Sheriff Miranda and his team closed down with the operations of the New York City Police Department, and the 250 that were closed down in the state, we're talking about 1,000 locations that will no longer terrorize our communities.
We saw a shooting a few days ago, three people shot. They were standing where? In front of an illegal cannabis shop. When you understand the scope of this problem and how it became a feeder for many of the criminal behaviors that we were seeing, because they were cash only business, so we saw the robberies, we saw the shootings. We saw just the erosion of quality of life inside some of our communities, that the communities had enough. They were fed up, they knew that something had to be done, and that's what we did. We got stuff done for the people of this city, and it was a combination.
One aspect of it was the clarion voice of the ever-present Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, who clearly talked about it over and over again at every town hall, every community meeting. She was talking about the SMOKEOUT Act. She was talking about how we needed to close down these shops. We cannot thank her enough, and I'm going to continue to lift up how, when we have lawmakers that hear, respond, and execute, it's important. That is what we're doing today.
Just look at this. DM Banks, Commissioner Daughtry, and the team, we were in the Bronx two weeks ago at an illegal social club. Not only did we find millions of dollars in illegal cannabis, mushrooms, and vape products, but we also found a shotgun. When we drilled down on it, we saw that there were 71 calls, 311 calls for that location. These places are becoming just disruptors in the quality of life of New Yorkers. Then a few days earlier than that, we went to and discovered in a local deli, the sheriff's team went in and they found in the back room millions of dollars of illegal supplies and items there as well.
Operation Padlock to Protect is just that. We must padlock these places to protect the people of the city and send a clear message that you are not going to peddle your illegal items on our community residents and destroy the legal market. When we started the operation that included, what the governor figured out, the deputizing of police officers to help the sheriffs, we saw the legal market start to increase in their profits. Those who are paying taxes, those who are hiring people legally, those who have a regulated product and not a product that's laced with all sorts of illegal items, people did not know what they were getting. To the contrary, the legal markets are doing just the opposite. They're making sure that the product is well tested, is legal, is regulated, and they're hiring and they're paying their tax dollars.
Kudos to the team, Commissioner Caban, for sending a clear message to the men and women of the Police Department that they will be fully engaged in this operation even after closing the sites. To go in back and making sure that they remain closed. Thank you to sheriff, Sheriff Miranda, who has taken on this assignment with a passion because he understands the seriousness of this moment. Our commission of DCWP, Commissioner Mayuga and her entire team and what they're carrying out. We just cannot, again, thank the lawmakers for giving us the tools to do the job that we knew had to be done. We're making good on our promise to shut down these illegal storefronts. There are many layers to it on how we can actually get it done, but we are doing just that.
These products are in place to destroy and to prevent our communities from continuing to thrive and grow as we have stated before. The numbers don't lie. We seized over $41 million in illegal products and issued over $65 million in penalties. Just this month, we are seeing some of the impact of taking action. We've taken a combined $8 million of illegal products off our city streets just this month. This is a big deal because it's not only the dollars amount attached to these products, but it's the dangers that these products can do to our communities.
For too long, these illegal shops have contributed to a feeling that any and everything goes. Any and everything won't go in this city. We will abide by the law and we're going to live up to our focus on protecting the people of the city ensuring those legalized shops are able to thrive in a real way. Legal cannabis is a budding industry and offers a once in a generation chance for those disproportionately impacted by the so-called war on drugs. We want them to be part of this industry and able to participate in the prosperity that comes from it, particularly Black and brown communities.
The numbers were clear on how many young people were impacted by the war on drugs. We're proud to be here today getting the black garbage bags off our streets and taking on other elements of making our city safer, of ensuring that we return our economy. We could not do what we do if we didn't have a real leader of the state. When you add our numbers together, the 250 plus the 750, that 1,000, it's just a unifying approach in the style of our governance on how we believe.
We have one leader in the state. We have one state that New York City's a part of. The coordination that you've witnessed between this governor and this mayor is unprecedented. We know if we come together, there's no problem we can't solve in this state. I'm proud to have as a leader of the State of New York, and that assisted us to make these inroads. I'm proud to introduce the governor of the State of New York, Governor Kathy Hochul.
Governor Kathy Hochul:We're here today to talk about a real success story. One that just six months ago, people would not have thought was possible. How we're finally shutting down the illegal cannabis shops that have taunted us, taunted our neighborhoods, and finally bringing back vitality to our neighborhoods. I want to thank the people who helped us get here.
Yes, I've known Gale Brewer for over a decade. I don't know that we've had a conversation the last two years without her bringing up, you've got to shut down the cannabis shops. Your tenacity has helped bring us to this point. The beauty is, you have a mayor who listens, who understands the power of the Office of Mayor to put a spotlight on an issue and say, this is a challenge. It's tough, it's not easy, but I'm going to run into the fire and solve this. That is the partnership I so appreciate, but also having a legislature that is responsive. Assemblymember Rajkumar, thank you for being a champion on this issue. Assemblymember Dinowitz, thank you, thank you, thank you.
I was just with our leaders yesterday, Carl Heastie, who had hoped to be here, but he's up in other parts of the state right now. We spoke about this and how important this is to continue this effort, because these criminals are very clever, right? It's whack-a-mole. They were playing whack-a-mole for a long time because the city did not have the power to put on a padlock that would stay on. It became a game. They thought they were winning. Guess what? They lost.
I want to thank everyone, especially our sheriff as well. It's a lot more responsibility on your shoulders and to all the members of the deputies and everybody who are at this, working in the streets with heart and soul, knowing how important it is to stop this industry because it is perilous for our neighborhoods. It is perilous for our children. Sheriff Miranda, I want to thank you for everything you've done as well.
Let me throw some numbers at you as well, and I'll get up to the big thousand number because I love that one as well, mayor. Six, that's how many months ago it was that I raised this in my State of the State address last January. We knew we had a tough road ahead, but everything I put in my State of the State has a tough road ahead. It's whether you're going to stick with it and get it done is the big question. I said we need to empower localities. We needed to give the power from the state to the localities to do what they should have had all along, in my opinion. They needed to get it from the state.
It's been four months since we signed this into law with great fanfare. Many of you were at that as well. Again, that thousand number, I'm really proud of that. That's just in a few months. That's not since the beginning. It's since we've been able to allow sheriffs and local police officers and the NYPD and State Police working together on a task force that we started to be able to go up and go to these nuisance stores. Finally, they're all going up in smoke.
$63 million is the collective total of all the product we've seen, city and state combined. Now, because we took down these illegal competitors, we now have 152 legal dispensaries across the state, and that is growing by the week. $312 million sales done by those dispensaries just in the last few months. That was last year, we only collected $160 million, an entire year. Right now, see the difference? Six months into this, $312 million from the legal dispensaries.
There's so much hope behind those numbers. People believe that we're turning the corner, making progress, doing something that we had all dreamed would happen. Also, it's about keeping our kids safe. Let me point out again what the mayor showed you. I want parents to see this, because if this is in your house, it's disguised to look like one of your child's toys, something that you'd expect to see. The older teenagers might bring it in the house and think nobody's going to notice this. This is an attractive nuisance, as we would say in law school. This is intentionally designed to draw the eye in the interest of our children, creating lifelong addictions to products that they never should have had at such a young age when it has an effect on them. This is why we're proud, not just as government leaders, but as parents, saying no more.
Again, thank you for all you're doing, shutting this down for our kids. There's also contaminated products. We're talking about so many overdose deaths. These illegal products have fentanyl and are laced with other products. They're not pure, they're unsafe. They could kill you. People don't realize that either. What we're doing here today, giving the green light so our legal industry can go even higher. Rapidly building what is planned to be and will be the most expansive and equitable legal cannabis industry in the nation.
I know it's a little tough, the rollout. I understand that. We have new leadership at the Office of Cannabis Management, Director Felicia Reed. There's new reforms that are underway to speed up the process, unclog the licensing bottleneck, and streamline the application process. That, coupled with the enhanced enforcement, is critical. Stopping the undermining of the legal market as well. Look at these products, know that now their lifespans are over, you see the product expiration date? Date is expired today. We're getting them off the streets, but also we're starting to bring back the legal tax revenue that is intentionally channeled to go back to the communities that were over-policed, over-in prosecution, and over-incarceration when marijuana was not a legal substance here.
We want those communities to be reinvested in to undo the harms of the past. Let's continue to do this. I also want to thank those who never gave up. All the legal owners who are just getting swamped. I remember visiting one in the Bronx just not that long ago. He says, I'm trying my best, doing my very best. I can't open because everybody's going to the legal ones just down the block. They don't know the difference. Yet, when I went back and visited him, he told me their sales are now up 100 percent because of what we did. That's what we've been trying to do. Unlock the power that has been waiting, and now it's finally happening as well.
You look at people, Osbert Orduña. When he opened his dispensary, Cannabis Place in Queens, he was surrounded by the illegal shops. He said those are now gone as well. His sales are up 105 percent. What is he doing with that money? He's investing in the community. He's hiring new staff. He just added five more people to his payroll. That's how you start small businesses and get it moving again. Another woman said her sales are up 3,000 percent. She sold more than $500,000 worth of goods, whereas the year before she sold almost nothing.
I'm excited about this. I know that one year from now when we look back, we'll have eradicated this industry. We'll have continued the progress that we're on. To all of you who never gave up believing that we could get this done, we got it done. We're on the way to ensuring that this is going to be the fairest, most equitable industry. The money's coming, and we're going to stop the illegal actors from harming our kids. All of you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Mayor, let's continue to partner on this and so many more initiatives, because working together, the people get things done. Thank you very much, everyone.
Deputy Mayor Banks:Governor, thank you. Certainly like to acknowledge the presence of Assemblymember Jeff Dinowitz. We have the father-son team, so we know we can't lose, so thank you. With that, we will now hear from the sheriff of the State of New York, Anthony Miranda.
Sheriff Anthony Miranda:It's always good to be here, and I want to start by, again thanking the mayor and the governor and the legislators that made this possible for the enforcement. Just so we're clear, New York City started enforcement in three months, and we have conducted close to 3,000 inspections in the City of New York. We have issued close to 900 cease and desist orders, and over 700 sealing orders at these locations.
As we find and continue to do investigations, we will continue to find that these new products are being out there that are targeting our children. The clear message is for everyone, both the adult and the child, the children should never be using this product. What you are smoking is not cannabis. These products are contaminated, they're being sprayed with chemicals. What you are smoking and getting high from are the chemicals, which has a different health impact on everyone using the product.
Anybody, the partnership that we have, the greatest partnership, comes from the community. Your complaints are being heard, and we want you to continue calling the Police Department, 311, the Sheriff's Office. We respond to those complaints, and you are the first ones to know who's invading our neighborhoods with these illegal products. Your partnership is extremely important to the success of this operation.
I also want to thank the members of the task force, the New York City Police Department, the Department of Consumer Worker Protection, and the men and women of the Sheriff's Office. For the hard work that they all do collectively, that we get the results that we have today. It is a collective operation. It was the mandate of the mayor that said that this is a problem of the city, not a problem of a particular agency, and mandated that all the agencies are working collectively, like never before, to be able to solve the problem. Thus we have the results that you have today that we're speaking of. I'm going to switch over for a second and say…
Damos las gracias (primero, para empezar en español). Mi nombre es Antonio Miranda, y yo soy el alguacil de Nueva York. Estamos aquí presentes para anunciar, (damos las gracias primero al alcalde Mayor Adams y también la gobernadora Hochul), por el trabajo que han hecho para darle poder a nuestras oficiales para enforzar la ley aquí en Nueva York. Hemos cerrado más de mil locales en Nueva York solamente, y solamente en tres meses hemos inspeccionado casi 3.000 locales en Nueva York. Ustedes son parte del mensaje que tenemos aquí. Eso que están vendiendo, lo están vendiendo a nuestros niños y es peligroso en nuestras comunidades. So, si ustedes están viendo eso, y están viendo que los niños están entrando a estos locales, deben reportarlo inmediatamente a nosotros para que podamos hacer la investigación que es necesaria. Damos las gracias a la comunidad por todo lo que han hecho por nosotros, dando la información y la cooperación que tenemos, trabajando juntos. No podemos hacer este trabajo sin su poder y su apoyo. So, damos las gracias a todos ustedes.
Translation:Give me the grace first to start in Spanish. My name is Anthony Miranda, I'm from New York. We are here to announce, we thank Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul for the work that they have done to give power to our officers to enforce the law here in New York. We have closed more than 1,000 stores in New York alone. In three months, we have inspected almost 3,000 stores in New York. You are part of the message that we have here. What you are selling, you are selling to our children, and it is dangerous in our communities. If you are seeing this, and you are seeing that children are entering these stores, we must report it immediately to us so that we can do the necessary investigation. We thank the community for everything they have done for us, giving us the information and the cooperation that we have working together. We cannot do this work without your power and your support. We thank all of you.
Thank you very much.
Deputy Mayor Banks:Thank you, sheriff. Next, we are going to hear from the police commissioner of the City of New York, Police Commissioner Caban.
Police Commissioner Edward Caban:Thank you very much, DM. Thank you, Governor Hochul, Mayor Adams, Sheriff Miranda, and everyone else that's here joining us today. What you're seeing here is a result of continued collaboration between the NYPD, the Sheriff's Office, and so many others. Our partnerships always work toward one common goal, public safety. The shutting down of these illegal cannabis shops gets us closer to that goal.
The safety of our communities, especially our young people, remains our top priority. Throughout the process, as legal shops began to open, we made it clear that it must be done the right way. We were also clear that if it wasn't done the right way, for whatever reasons, there would be consequences. Because in order for a system to function, it must work within the law. The NYPD, along with the Sheriff's Office and so many others, made sure that it did. We're going to make sure that we're out there every day.
Since Operation Padlock to Protect began the first week of May, the operation has shut down over 750 smoke shops and seized nearly 12,000 pounds of illegal cannabis. The next step is sending all these contraband to be destroyed. We're not stopping what's in this warehouse right now. We will continue seizing these illegal products and shutting down unlicensed shops whenever and wherever they pop up. We have a responsibility to the people in this community.
We have a responsibility to the legal shop owners across our city. They're the ones who have done the right thing, got through the process correctly, and followed the law. Their businesses shouldn't suffer because others are cheating the system and putting people at risk. This industry is only going to expand over time. It's absolutely critical that regulations are enforced, that people follow the laws, and that we keep these products out of the hands of our children.
Again, this operation is about one thing, public safety. That outweighs everything else, in every case, all the time. Today's message is crystal clear. If you operate an illegal smoke shop in New York City, we will shut it down. We will seize the product in your shop, and we will destroy it. We will always do everything we can to keep our community safe, and this work is an important part of our continued collaboration. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Banks:There's a saying that says that you'd be surprised how much you can accomplish if no one was concerned who's gotten the credit. I would say my weekly calls with the mayor, but they're more like my hourly calls with the mayor. He stresses that all the time. We have to break down these silos. We have to work together as one team, as one city. You're seeing now just a small example, but a lot more to come.
We're going to be making some announcements about the mayor's taking these agencies and working together. That teamwork includes the elected officials as well, who have been great partners. We're going to hear from some now. We're going to start with Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar, who's been a great partner, and welcome.
State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar:Good morning. On the very first day of this year's legislative session, I pledged that I was going to help close down all 36,000 illegal smoke shops that have been ballooning across our state. As we all know, these illegal smoke shops are hotbeds of criminal activity. They endanger our children by popping up near schools, and they are selling dangerous, unregulated cannabis. You simply do not know what you're getting.
As has been said, they harm the legal cannabis market, costing us millions in taxpayer dollars. I said we need to smoke them out and shut them down. I authored the legendary SMOKEOUT Act, which passed in our state budget, so we can now smoke them all out and shut them down. When I introduced the SMOKEOUT Act, I said we're going to smoke them out and padlock them so that they can never reopen. My SMOKEOUT Act gave power to all municipalities across this state to close down the illegal smoke shops on their own, so they would no longer have to wait for the state to give them power to do so.
I was so proud to be able to help bring this power to New York City. Now our great mayor and our great governor are using this new power to shut down all the illegal cannabis stores. Can we all give a round of applause to our two great executives who are getting the job done? This is really an example of government working for the people. The passage of the SMOKEOUT Act was not just our victory. It was a victory for public safety, for common sense, and for the health of our children. This was one instance where Albany listened to the people. The people spoke, and Albany listened.
This year I launched Operation: SMOKEOUT, which brought together New Yorkers across all five boroughs with the common because of shutting down these shops. I would like to thank all of the people of this city for taking a stand for what was right. It was an inspiration. I was honored to stand with the people for public safety and for public health, no matter how hard it was or how powerful the interests were that we were up against.
That's what you elected all of us for, to stand up for what was right. I'm honored to do that every day with my incredible partners. First of all, the great State Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, who is a partner on so many issues, along with the Dinowitz team, the young Eric Dinowitz. Of course, Gale Brewer came to Times Square, where together we were a part of this Operation Smoke Out. Of course, the incredible borough president that I'm honored to work with now every day, it feels like, on this task.
Operation Smoke Out has now become the mayor's Operation Padlock [to] Protect. I just want to commend and thank the mayor, the incredible sheriff, Anthony Miranda, who's unstoppable on this issue, the incredible police commissioner, Eddie Caban. In just two months since we passed this SMOKEOUT Act in the state budget, they've been able to close now over 700 illegal shops. They've closed down so many, there's not enough room for all the illegal cannabis. We don't know where to put it. This is an example of government working for the people. Together, we are smoking them out, and we're shutting them down for good. Thank you so much.
Deputy Mayor Banks:Thank you, Assemblyperson. Next, we're going to hear from the Bronx borough president, President Vanessa Gibson.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson:I'm not, okay. I'm still going to be brief, I'll be bold, and then I'll be gone. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for being here for such an important announcement. I am Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson. On behalf of the entire borough of the Bronx, 1.4 million residents that live and work and raise their families in this great borough, we are thankful for this incredible collaboration, Operation Padlock to Protect.
Thank you to Governor Kathy Hochul, to Mayor Eric Adams, to Police Commissioner Eddie Caban, to our NYC Sheriff Anthony Miranda, and all of the elected officials, Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar, Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, Councilmember Eric Dinowitz, Councilmember Gale Brewer, and all of my colleagues in the Bronx delegation, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and everyone that has assembled to make sure that all New Yorkers are safe.
I supported the legalization of cannabis because I recognize the inequity that it caused for generations of African American and Latino Americans in this state. We are righting a wrong by legalizing cannabis, but we also have to make sure that there's a balance in this process. For all of the legal providers in the industry that follow the rules, that pay taxes, that provide jobs, that stimulate the economy, it is unacceptable that we've seen this eruption of unlicensed and illegal operators throughout the state of New York.
The fact that in several months, 750 plus illegal cannabis smoke shops have been shut down is a testament to this collaboration. The fact that we are aligned together to ensure that New Yorkers get better. This has been disruptive to their quality of life. It has threatened our small businesses. I want to not only acknowledge all of the stakeholders from our merchants associations, our business leaders, our BIDs, so many of you that came forward because you live in our communities and this illegal activity every single day. We are here to tell you that is not acceptable. As long as you operate illegally in this county and in this state, we are going to shut you down.
It is unacceptable that we've seen so many in our neighborhoods, across our commercial corridors, and we want to make sure that we show New Yorkers better. Operation Padlock to Protect is to protect the fabric of what the legalization of cannabis was all about. To protect our quality of life, our public health, and our public safety. The fact that these cannabis products are so driven to attract children with childlike wrappers and all these different flavors that I see is unacceptable. We cannot allow our children to be exposed to illegal cannabis in this way. Untested, unregulated, and not monitored in a standardized way.
I want to say thank you everyone. I've been able to join our mayor and our police commissioner and so many others, our sheriff, at two of the takedowns that we've had right here in the Bronx. Millions of dollars of illegal cannabis products that were confiscated at a family deli. The nerve of family deli and nothing about family. Down in Mott Haven. All credit to the residents in Throggs Neck and Mott Haven and all over the Bronx that have come forward with these complaints. Continue to call 311. Continue to call your elected officials. Call your community board. Make sure that your voices are heard. Because until we see that there are no more unlicensed and illegal operators, guess what? Our work must continue.
Again, my gratitude and deep appreciation to everyone assembled to this incredible partnership that has aligned together to keep New Yorkers safe. To protect our businesses. Also I want to recognize our Bronx District Attorney, Darcel Clark, who could not be here today. Certainly aligns and stands with us as a real partner in this work to protect New York families, our businesses. Make sure that we preserve the sanctity of legalized cannabis in the state of New York. Again, thank you governor. Thank you, mayor. You're always welcome in the Bronx for these announcements. Because we're going to continue to demonstrate to our Bronx residents that we mean business. Thank you so much. Thank you Deputy Mayor.
Deputy Mayor Banks:Thank you BP. Next we're going to hear from Councilmember Dinowitz.
City Council Member Eric Dinowitz:The rule in politics is you don't follow Vanessa Gibson. I've broken that rule. Good morning everyone. I'm Councilmember Eric Dinowitz. I represent this area of Wakefield and all of District 11. It really is a good morning.
A few months ago, before the passage of Assemblymember Rajkumar's SMOKEOUT Act, I had the opportunity to go with the Sheriff to raid some of the smoke shops. I was astounded by a few things. One has been said, the way these products target children. Not just the products, but if the awnings, the images in the windows, they are designed to lure children in. Then you have pop rocks, which is not typically spelled with a Z. Colors, they mean crayons. They are designed to attract children. As a former teacher, I fear what is going on now in school with children bringing in, knowingly or unknowingly, bringing in these products to use in school. Which as has been spoken about, is very dangerous.
I was also astounded to see that 70 percent of the cigarettes sold in New York City are untaxed. These illegal cannabis shops are selling illegal, untaxed cigarettes, which is also costing our city more in taxpayer revenue. This bill, this act, these actions are a game changer. Our constituents, they ask a lot of us. They ask a lot of us, but they are all rooted in mainly the same things. People want a government that is responsive so people can be safe and have a good quality of life. With the Padlock to Protect operation, we are doing just that.
This is only possible when government works together. I really want to give it up to Mayor Adams, to Governor Hochul, to Assemblymember Rajkumar, Assemblyman Dinowitz, Councilmember Brewer, and Borough President Gibson. Because when we work together as government, we can do what our constituents ask of us. We can keep them safe. We can improve their quality of life. This, maybe more than many other issues we face, is exactly what government is doing and should do. That is to be responsive to the needs of our constituents.
I look forward to more of the shops in District 11 and throughout the Bronx and the city being shut down. Because we cannot just incentivize the right behavior by legalizing cannabis. We cannot just incentivize, we have to disincentivize the wrong behavior. The wrong behavior is selling illegal cannabis, illegal and dangerous products here in our city. With this disincentive, with the law on our side now, with the work being done by our mayor and by the governor, we will do just that. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Banks:Thank you, councilmember. Next, we're going to hear from Councilmember Gale Brewer.
City Councilmember Gale Brewer:Thank you, deputy mayor. I'm not always thanking people. how I am. I certainly want to thank the mayor. I want to thank the governor. I want to thank the sheriff, the PD. Consumer Affairs has been awesome. And so has OATH, an agency that has to deal with the outcomes of this effort.
Just this past weekend, I was at a NYCHA Family Day, us elected officials who go to the mall. Guess who sponsored it was the most of it was the most wonderful legal cannabis shop in the neighborhood. The gentleman who runs it is phenomenal. I went to the opening, and I remember, there's a fancy building next door. I always have stories. Of course, people were bitching and carrying on about, this is going to be terrible next door. That whole goddamn shop was full of residents from the fancy building next door. I pointed that out to the woman who was bitching and carrying on to me.
The people who… I want to be really honest, the people who own, because they've gone through a process, are phenomenal. They're really decent, lovely, good shopkeepers. It was October 23. I always have a lot of interns. I sent them out. We found 63 illegal shops between 54th and 108th Street. That's a lot. Then, thanks to the sheriff, we did some raids early. Zaza Waza. People call me Zaza Waza, not Gale Brewer. This particular shop, we raided with the wonderful sheriff. Of course, they opened up the next day. Then along came a consumer, because in April of this year, it turned out that this shop, just like all the others, was selling illegal tobacco. This was before the law. We went after the illegal tobacco. They already had a gazillion summonses from the sheriff and from cannabis from the consumer. Long story short, we closed it, because with the help of the 24 Precinct, we put a padlock on. Those sons of bitches broke the padlock that night. The next morning when we went there, the damn thing was open. We called the police again. We called the folks from the consumer. They closed it again with big, huge padlocks, about this big. They paid their fine. Guess what? They decided to open again and have illegal tobacco. I couldn't believe it. This time, we closed them forever.
The fact that this law has passed has made a huge difference. I know that the statistic is probably higher, but a few months ago, it was 27 percent increase business for the legal shops. Maybe it took a long time to get the legal shops going, but they are really fabulous. The owners are fabulous. The product is fabulous. The outreach to the community is fabulous. It's really a win-win. People want to go. Nurses, I used to see who you understandably see in the shop, people who want the product. It's a really great thing. We just have to keep working. I want to thank OATH for quickly stepping up when they had not a lot of staff to do this.
These shops need to pay their fines. They're not all paying their fines. There's a lot of money left on the table. Somebody who’s at the IBO to look at ways that the city should be collecting more money, this is another place where we need to collect more money. I have nothing but accolades to say thank you to all the agencies involved. As we heard earlier, children see the cartoons and they think it's for them. Parents were the first to call me. Then one day I had a principal call me crying on the phone because he had vaping in the classroom and he had never seen that before. That really upset me. This is an effort that is needed. It's going the right way. We just have to keep moving in that direction. Thank you to everybody involved. Thank you.
Deputy Mayor Banks:Thank you, councilmember. Now we will hear, I think our last speaker will be Assemblymember Dinowitz.
State Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz:Thank you. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz. Yes, I am the last speaker. That's a big deal. This is my district. You cannot get farther north in the Bronx than where we are now. We're the part of the Bronx that sticks up into Mount Vernon. And mayor, we really need this place air conditioned.
We get tons and tons of calls in my office, like all of us do. If there are two things that we get by far the most complaints about, one are the mopeds, electric bikes, all the things where people are driving haphazardly against traffic. It's been terrible. The second is this. What do they have in common? It's all about quality of life. There's a sense that many people have that things are out of control. Now, we know so many things are getting better in this city. Crime is going down. When people see these shops, when people are almost run over by a moped, they feel that the quality of life is being threatened. That is why this is so important.
I just want to say thank you to the mayor, to the governor, the sheriff, the commissioner, and everybody else who is part of enforcing the law, the law that we passed in the legislature and was signed by the governor. This is making a difference. This is when government works together collaboratively: the city, the state, the legislature, the executive, all working together. It has an impact on the quality of life. Like everybody else, like my colleagues, I went on a couple of raids with the sheriff several months ago.
Call me naive, but I could not believe some of the stuff I was seeing there. We walked into the first place. I see some guys sitting around, and it took me a few minutes to notice that he was in handcuffs. What they did is they went into the back room. We saw they pulled down a full ceiling, and there were tons of unstamped cigarettes there. Then they have all these display cases, but they had false backs, and behind it were other illegal products. Then, of course, you had the flavored vape products. Then they were selling things where they had false bottoms. You unscrew it, and that's where people hide things. I mean, what do I know about that stuff? Now I know about that stuff.
There is such a thriving industry of bad stuff going on. We are finally able to fight this and fight it. It's been successful so far, but I think we've scratched the surface. We've got to put the bad guys out of business, and the good guys have to be able to thrive. They have to be able to do what our law that we passed in the state intended to do. I'm just so grateful that we're here today to recognize that in just a few short months, we've made a huge dent, a huge impact. People are starting to notice, and we've just got to keep going until we are finished, until we complete this job. Again, thank you, thank you. It really makes a difference in the lives of our constituents.
Deputy Mayor Banks:Thank you, assemblymember. Now we're going to go to question and answer. We welcome elected officials who wish to join the mayor and members of the administration up for Q&A.
Mayor Adams:We should be clear that 80 percent of what's stored here is illegal cannabis and cannabis type products. Not just what we see here, all of these bins that you see here that has sheriff’s, these are illegal products that is going to be destroyed based on the rules and regulations of destruction. What's here is on display to show you the colorful approaches. All of these products that you see on the shelves and these bins are a part of what has been captured and retrieved and confiscated by the sheriff, the Police Department, and their entire team.
Come on up here, lieutenant. This is who on the ground. Everybody gets all the support. This lieutenant is amazing. She's out all times of the night. She's in the streets just doing the job every time, 2, 3 a.m. in the morning. She's out there making sure it's being done right. I want to make sure you get your light. Go on, ask a couple of questions.
Question:Mr. Mayor?
Mayor Adams:How are you?
Question:All right, how are you doing?
Mayor Adams:Great. Great.
Question:Two questions, actually. One, do you think or is there any investigation into whether there's an organized crime component to all of these shops? Number two, many people here have mentioned kids using these products or buying them. You mentioned a couple weeks ago your concern about kids getting high in school. How are you addressing that, being that school is starting in a month?
Mayor Adams:Yes, and I think Councilwoman Brewer talked about it. The vaping in the classroom, a lot of these products are making it easier for these young people to get high. if I didn't know this and I saw this sitting on the desk or a child carrying it around, I would not think that it was illegal cannabis.
One of the things that we want to do, we have a great coordination with the chancellor. We are going to put together some type of documentary that we can get out to the teachers and the schools to say, here's what we should be looking for. We need to be in a constant state of education so that we can push back on what is happening to our children. If you were to go to the average educator, they would not know this stuff. We have to use the law enforcement community, must be connected to our schools so that we can operate as a team. We started at the beginning of the administration, all of our principals and superintendents would have regularly scheduled meetings with the precinct commanders, with the borough commanders, because we need that cross-pollination of how we communicate with each other.
Your first question you were saying… I have been speaking with the commissioner, Commissioner Caban. We believe that at a minimum, there's a well-organized distribution network in place. We don't want to just go after the stores, the social clubs. We want to go out after the source. Commissioner Caban has already started that initiative to identify the distribution. There is a distribution system that's in place. No different than the distribution that you see in any major chain store operation. These products, I'm sure the lieutenant would tell you that as she goes to different locations, you're seeing the similarity in the products. We want to find out what's the source, how they get into the city, what's the distribution network to move it throughout, because there is clearly a very sophisticated distribution network.
Bernadette! How are you, Bernadette?
Question:Good. Mr. Mayor, or maybe this is a question for the sheriff, what kind of data do you have that shows that these shops, you've got over 750, are actually closing down? Do you have data that distinguishes between what goes down permanently and what reopens? Then also for the assemblywoman, if you end up challenging Brad Lander or running for comptroller, is this something that you would take on and also audit?
Mayor Adams:You always know how to sneak in an off topic. I think that when, not speaking for the assemblywoman, when she makes that decision, she'll lay out what topic she's going to go after. She's being clear. She's about working class people and not merely finding political props, but doing the actual job of closing down the shops.
The data, what we've learned, and again, I think Councilwoman Brewer pointed out, these guys were so arrogant. You'll close them down at 4 a.m., they'll open back up at 4 p.m. They were just so arrogant. They would clip the locks, they'd go back in and say business is open. That was why we needed the connection with our state lawmakers. We needed the connection of having NYPD play a role because then the precincts were able to have a special assignment and go back to those shops that were supposed to be closed and take action. If you didn't do that, then the sheriff did not have the manpower to be able to do those re-inspections.
By having the police deputized, they're able to go back. That was the missing piece of deputizing the precincts and the police officers. That was something that the assemblywoman pushed for us up in Albany, and the governor understood it. We were able to get that done. That was a huge piece that we were missing from this operation.
Question:Mayor, how many of these are closed permanently? How many of them have you guys already visited and now opened again?
Mayor Adams:We'll get those numbers for you. The sheriff will get those exact numbers from you. Hopefully all of them.
Chief Jeffrey Maddrey, Chief of Department, Police Department:[Inaudible.]
Mayor Adams:60 percent.
Question:Mayor and team, I was hoping you could add some color to some of the other illegal substances found. Are you seeing stuff like fentanyl directly interlaced with the bud? Are you seeing it peddled separately?
Mayor Adams:That's interesting. Sheriff, you want to talk about some of the stuff you’re seeing. Come on to this mic. You're not overshadowing him.
Lieutenant Francesca Rosa, Sheriff’s Office:We're finding these products separately many times. There are other products like psilocybin mushrooms, many times in edible form, so chocolate form and edibles. We find some syrups, also psilocybin and hallucinogens. Fentanyl, we're seeing that separately.
Question:How often are you also finding weapons or large stores of cash?
Lieutenant Rosa:Many times we are finding weapons, such as the mayor mentioned earlier. We found a shotgun at the location in Mott Haven. These are very large cash businesses, so we are finding a lot of cash when we do these inspections.
Question:I have a two part question, Mr. Mayor. It was when the legal, regulated cannabis shops were allowed to open, the licensed ones, that we saw the illegal operators really proliferate. I'm wondering if someone can sort of explain what the legal loophole was exactly that the illegal operators took advantage of in order to be able to just open and continue. I know that there's now this new enforcement mechanism that took effect a few months ago that we're seeing now.
The second part of the question is there anything else that needs to be sort of changed or updated or tweaked legislatively in order to maybe increase the penalties so that these stores stay closed or to really distinguish them from the legal, licensed cannabis shops?
Mayor Adams:Great question. The sheriff can go into some of the problems we were finding. These guys was just writing this off as the cost of doing business. The fines were so low. It was basically so what if you hit me with a $250 summons? I'm making so much money. That's just the cost of doing business.
What we must do, we must now switch our attention to landlords that knowingly opened their business to a cannabis shop. I think we should look at some of the nuisance abatement laws because those who are participating in the action must be held accountable. That is what our team over at the NYPD and my counsel in the Mayor’s Office, we're looking at what's the next step up in Albany that we need to do because we're learning a lot.
We're learning what is bottlenecking the system. We're slowing it down. There were attempts to sort of reverse this action that was lost in court. We want to see and go back to Albany and say, here, we have done this. We've closed down 750, 1,000 in the state. Here's what else we need to make it happen. You want to talk about some of those loopholes?
Sheriff Miranda:Again, legal versus illegal. When they decriminalized cannabis, that was the first thing, because it was reported as legalizing cannabis, it was decriminalized. Then people just came in and started opening the vacant shops. We had a lot of vacant shops. Landlords were renting to what they didn't understand to be cannabis business.
One of the most effective tools, as the mayor said, is that the landlords are now being notified. They're being held accountable. They are actually cooperating with all the enforcement agencies about removing those illegal tenants because they violated the leases. That cooperation with the landlords, the building owners, and with the various district attorney's offices working collectively has also been that additional response that's necessary to get them out of the locations.
Question:Landlords are being fined or cited as well?
Sheriff Miranda:The landlords are now subject to fines up to $50,000. The fines for enforcement have also gone up to $25,000 per infraction. Based on those increased fines, it has an impact. The cooperation of the landlords and the system that we're using to work with the landlords when they're trying to evict the tenants and working with the various district attorney's offices in all five counties, that has been an effective response to actually getting the tenants out. They've been vacating those leases, and the landlords are taking control of the properties back.
Question:Hi, Mr. Mayor.
Mayor Adams:How are you? Good.
Question:Good. Thank you. I'm just wondering, how many fines has the city issued? Versus that, how many have they collected from illegal cannabis shops? I know Councilwoman Gale Brewer has…
Mayor Adams:Over $60 million. We can get the number of how much has been collected. We are also going to, as Councilman Brewer indicated, the delinquency in actually paying the fine, we're now moving into an operation of how do we go after and seize those fines. We seized the products. Folks were fined. Now, as we continue to evolve, we're looking at now how do we zero in and go after those fines. There are different ways to do so. We're going to make sure it doesn't go afoul of the legal aspect of doing so. But we intend to collect every dollar.
Question:What's been some of the roadblocks in collecting those fines?
Mayor Adams:Probably just a combination, at the heart of it is that people just don't feel they should have to pay the fine. These guys are very organized. We have to be just as vigilant and organized. We have a few tricks up our sleeves that we're going to meet them head on. That's how we got where we are now. We're going to continue to evolve. We're not resting on our success. We are going to continue to meet these guys head on. Some of the roadblocks is just the arrogance that they don't feel they have to pay.
Question:You just said as you guys continue to evolve, right? Do you feel like there's going to be an increase in how much agencies are deployed to tackle a specific, whether it be specific areas in different boroughs, to see how we can continue to crack down on these legal shops?
Mayor Adams:Yes, I didn't get it all. Did you hear it? I didn't hear it.
Question:Will there be an increase in how many agencies are deployed from when the operation started, as you said, to continue to evolve, cracking down on these shops we're seeing, whether it be specific boroughs or just statewide?
Mayor Adams:Yes. I can speak of the city. I know the governor is really focused on this as well. We are doing an analysis on what manpower is needed, what additional manpower is needed to do investigations, as was just mentioned, the long-term investigation. The goal is to make sure that the sheriff and Commissioner Caban can coordinate to allocate the resources of the team. I was speaking with Deputy Mayor Banks. He had the whole team on board.
We were talking about what's the next evolution of this? This is the first evolution. We're becoming smarter. We're becoming more knowledgeable on what needs to be done. Making sure OATH is… Because OATH must listen to all of these complaints, so we have to beef up increased staffing in OATH. We need to make sure the manpower is part of the investigation part. We are in constant… DM Banks is constantly evolving to say, what's the best way for us to take to the next step?
We're excited about the next step. This is the first layer of it. We will shut down these illegal shops, as the borough president stated. We're going to shut you down.
Question:[Inaudible.]
Mayor Adams:Yes, and this is a lot. That's why I wanted to be clear. Don't be misled by the display we have here. This is all illegal products that's here. If you look as far as your eyes can see, the sheriff is going to put in place with the team the process of destruction. There's a way to destroy the cannabis. Vapes are totally different, and we're going to need some help from the state to talk about not making it too labor-intense to destroy the vapes and other items, because I think they're classified as bio-hazardous materials, it's just too much of a process to do. We need to figure out how we short that version. The weed that's here, it's just going to go up in smoke.
