Aug. 13, 2024 By Anthony Medina The NYC Sheriff’s Office and NYPD busted two additional illegal smoke shop operations in Rego Park and Maspeth late last month, adding to the hundreds of smoke shops shuttered across the city as part of ‘Operation Padlock to Protect.’ ‘Operation Padlock to Protect,’ a multi-agency task force comprised…
Aug. 2, 2024 By Anthony Medina A targeted operation launched in May to shut down illegal smoke shops has led to the shuttering of over 195 locations in Queens and hundreds more throughout the five boroughs, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced at a press conference in the Bronx Wednesday. The Mayor’s announcement…
Apr. 3, 2024 By Anthony Medina A coalition of legal and licensed cannabis dispensary owners have come together to urge New York State officials to take swift legislative action against unlicensed weed shops. The dispensary owners have joined forces and penned a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul, State Sen. Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly…
Read More
Mar. 12, 2024 By Anthony Medina A joint operation between Council Member Robert Holden and New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda has removed thousands of illegal cannabis and tobacco products from three smoke shops in Middle Village. The crackdown on Tuesday, Mar. 5, led to the arrest of three smoke shop employees after investigators found…
Read More
Nov. 28, 2023 By Anthony Medina At the Queens Community Board 5 Liquor License and Cannabis Committee meeting on Monday, Nov. 27, members voted to oppose four out of six applications for proposed cannabis dispensary locations in Ridgewood and Glendale. The committee meeting at the Brewery Keenan Heiser American Legion Post on Cooper Avenue in…
Read More
Nov. 10, 2023 By Anthony Medina Queens Community Board 5 (CB 5) officially voted to oppose all three applications for legal adult-use cannabis dispensaries during its meeting at Christ the King High School in Middle Village, on Wednesday, Nov. 8. As a follow-up to the Community Board 5 Liquor License and Cannabis Committee meeting held last week, board members heard again from the public regarding the proposed sites for the state’s conditional adult-use retail dispensary applicants and moved to vote on the matter once and for all. Once the Liquor License and Cannabis Committee report was shared with the board,…
Read More
Oct. 19, 2023 By Czarinna Andres and Anthony Medina Queens elected officials have united to formally express their concerns over proposed adult-use retail dispensary license applications for storefronts in Glendale and Maspeth, citing the potential risks posed by their proximity to educational institutions. In a letter written on Monday, Oct. 16, addressed to the New… Read more »
Oct. 18, 2023 By Iryna Shkurhan As the state is rolling out legal adult-use cannabis with an emphasis on social equity, community boards have been left with a novel responsibility of approving the dispensary applications that are rolling in. At this month’s monthly meeting that congregates the chairs of all 14 community boards in Queens, a frustration with the state’s lack of support in adopting the new responsibility dominated the meeting. All who spoke up at the Oct. 16 meeting in Kew Gardens expressed a need for more structure to deal with the various challenges that are already coming up…
Read More
Aug. 18, 2023 By Anthony Medina
A second Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) application within the Community Board 5 district plans to set up shop on 57-01 Myrtle Ave. in Ridgewood sometime in November, according to the owners of the cannabis dispensary.
Apr. 25, 2023 By Bill Parry The gold “Happy 420” balloons were still hanging in the front window of the Myrtle Shop in Ridgewood Monday, April 24, as investigators from the New York City Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Office of Cannabis Management and police from the 104th Precinct carried out a raid at…
Read More