After cannabis crackdown, landlords cope with padlocked stores

When New York enacted a law to create a legal cannabis industry, it took nearly two years to set it up. The first legit dispensary didn’t open until December 2022, and things continued to move like molasses. Aggressive entrepreneurs rushed into the void. Smoke shops popped up across New York City, with many of them selling cannabis illegally — confident that no one would stop them. For a while, no one did. After all, weed was legal, right? Cops turned their attention to more serious matters. But complaints poured in from elected officials and from investors trying to launch legal […]

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