NYC illegal pot shop worker boldly defiant as officials question lack of enforcement: ‘It’s not going to do anything’ (2024)

A brazen worker at one of the city’s thousands of unlicensed pot shops delivered a message to the New York cannabis cops promising to padlock stores like his — bring it on!

The defiant clerk thumbing his nose at authorities works at Gelato on 86th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn — but the store does not serve the popular Italian ice cream at all.

“That’s nothing new. That’s always been a possibility of getting raided here. But I’m not going to be put out of a job!” said the worker, who refused to give his name and puffed weed during a Post visit Sunday.

“I’ll put a table outside and sell in the street. I don’t give a f–k! You can’t mess with a person’s money!”

He added: “They’re housing illegal immigrants and paying their way to get the vote for Biden, and this is what they’re going to do? Come raid pot shops?”

The worker, who offered a Post photographer a puff of his product said, “It’s not going to do anything. Everybody will adjust.”

But this shop has been the subject of neighborhood complaints.

And it’s one of more than 100 suspected illegal weed stores that The Post was able to identify in short order by reaching out to a few elected officials, community boards and business groups.

Josephine Beckmann, district manager, Community Board 10, alerted The Post to the Gelato pot store when providing a list of suspected unlicensed marijuana shops on her Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton turf in southern Brooklyn.

“The most complained-about location is Gelato.. (It is not an ice cream shop) unlicensed dispensary near several schools,” she said.

The shop has become infamous among neighbors for the trouble its customers bring to the area.

“If the cops came in and locked that place up today and it never reopened that would make my life better immediately,” said one fed-up mom, who didn’t want to give her name because she was afraid of blow-back from Gelato’s clientele.

“They’ve come a few times and we were all happy thinking oh wow they’re getting rid of that place thank God! And then nothing happened. They never got rid of it.

“So we just got used to the idea that this is the way it’s going to be and let’s just all deal with it.”

The smoke-in-your face response from Gelato comes as some New Yorkers wonder where’s the weed enforcement promised by Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul.

After holding a recent victory lap press conference heralding approval of a tougher state law to padlock unlicensed cannabis shops, the mayor and governor have yet to unleash the promised crackdown to shut down the illegal pot peddlers.

“The crackdown should have started last week,” said Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella, who estimated there are more than 100 illegal smoke shops across even tidy Richmond County.

There are only four licensed pot shops in the borough.

“We’re pushing for more enforcement. This is a serious quality of life issue,” he said.

Councilwoman Gale Brewer — whose Upper West Side District is inundated with illegal pot shops — told The Post she’ll hold an oversight hearing as investigations committee chairwoman on cannabis enforcement and is expected to send a letter to the mayor to ask to declare war against them.

“I want to know what’s the plan … The city got everything the mayor wanted, I believe in the law,” Brewer said in a Sunday interview.

“Padlock these stores … They need to be padlocked, that’s what that’s the only way to stop [them].”

The city sheriff’s office says there are about 2,000 illegal smoke shops, compared to 50 licensed cannabis shops in the Big Apple.

Asked about enforcement, a Hochul spokesman said, “The new cannabis enforcement laws grant localities the power to shut down illicit shops, including NYC. For more details about recent enforcement activities, we would refer you to the NYC Sheriff.”

The state Office of Cannabis Management will update their rules to enforce the new padlock law, expected to take place during a Cannabis Control Board meeting on May 10.

But New York City officials were given the new enforcement powers “immediately” after the law was approved, according to Hochul’s office — tools that Adams asked Albany for.

While Gelato was defiant, other unlicensed cannabis operators are wary.

A Post reporter and photographer could not gain access to “86 Exotic Shop” on 86th Street in Bay Ridge because the workers feared the journos were cops.There was heavy video surveillance and a sign on the window said, “Please Remove All Masks & Hoodies.”

The owner of an unlicensed cannabis shop a 105-12 Coss Bay Blvd. in Ozone Park seemed resigned that the high times may be over.

“This is over anyway,” the owner, a middle-aged man, said, shaking his head. “We already decided we will become a phone store. “This will be over soon.”

The Post reached out to City Hall for comment, but officials referred a reporter to previous remarks the mayor made during his press conference last week.

“I think we have 2,800. The team is going to be ready to go hit those 2,800,” Adams said of illegal shops.

Adams said the battle plan was still being finalized when asked when the crackdown would begin.

“The goal is, they are already building out the operationalizing of this. So as soon as the ink dries, we’re going to execute,” the mayor said.

“We’re going to use our manpower more effectively. I am about mobilization of manpower.”

City Sheriff Anthony Miranda said Sunday, “We’ll be doing inspections of stores near schools, houses of worship and parks.

“Nobody is sleeping on this,” the sheriff said. “We’re putting the pieces together. People will know when we’re out there. We will be very visible and people will know the tide has turned.”

Cannabis industry insiders are also awaiting the promised closing of illegal weed shops — and more openings of licensed stores.

“The crackdown is only part of the solution. We need to license more cannabis stores to suffocate the illegal shops,” said Joe Rossi, a cannabis industry lobbyist.