Mayor Eric Adams of New York on Wednesday visited a pizzeria in Queens that was once an illegal smoke shop to celebrate the success of his administration’s crackdown on illegal cannabis shops, even as the city is bracing for a potential resurgence.
Mr. Adams said the pizzeria, which is named Salsa and opened in Rego Park in March, demonstrated how the enforcement against illegal weed sellers has paved the way for other small businesses to open and for the legal cannabis industry to thrive.
“We went from illegal items that were harmful to communities to pizza, good food, good-paying jobs and a support system,” he said.
The mayor said his administration has shut down about 1,400 smoke shops since the crackdown started last May. At the same time, the number of licensed cannabis dispensaries in the city has surpassed 160 and generated more than $350 million in sales.
In the wake of state lawmakers’ decision to legalize recreational marijuana in 2021, the number of unlicensed weed shops exploded throughout the city, undercutting licensed dispensaries before they had the chance to open. The move to shutter the renegade shops — which in Manhattan alone vastly exceeded the number of Starbucks coffee shops — was widely applauded.
But the court orders that allowed the city sheriff to seal the illegal businesses with padlocks for one year have begun to expire, requiring the city to remove the locks.
The expiring sealing orders have raised the possibility that a wave of illegal stores could reopen and once again overwhelm legal operators. Mr. Adams said the authorities would continue monitoring the storefronts to make sure the businesses were operating legally.
At the news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Adams took a shot at former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is his most formidable opponent as he seeks re-election. Mr. Cuomo, who signed the legalization law, is the front-runner in the Democratic primary, while Mr. Adams is running as an independent in the general election.
“I had to clean up a lot of the stuff that the former governor did” on issues ranging from bail reform to cannabis, the mayor said, responding to a reporter’s question.
Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, fired back at the mayor, whom he said had acted like a bystander for years as the illegal weed shops festered.
“A good manager would have acted quicker to confront it head-on,” he said. “New Yorkers aren’t stupid, and they know the mayor is a desperate man and that Andrew Cuomo has the experience to get this city back on the right track.”
It took two years and much effort for the city to close Dukaan Boyz, the smoke shop that Salsa replaced on Woodhaven Boulevard. The shop was initially shut down by a city task force in 2022, but it sprang back to life as Woodhaven Convenience. Little had changed, however, prompting a second raid in 2024.
Robert Holden, a Queens City Council member that represents the area, shared a video on X during the 2024 raid that showed a sheriff’s deputy flipping a switch that changed the counter display glass from frosted to clear, revealing shelves of illicit weed products. In another video, an officer pulled on an electrical outlet to reveal a hidden compartment.
The city fined the owners more than $16,000 for selling cannabis and cigarettes without the proper permits, according to court records.
In recent rulings, however, state judges found that the city’s actions against some of the shops had violated constitutional protections, and barred the city from conducting warrantless searches at licensed hemp stores suspected of illegally selling marijuana. The city is appealing the rulings.
Mayor Adams said that the city would approach lawmakers in Albany if the rulings presented significant roadblocks to his administration’s efforts to keep unlicensed cannabis sellers in check.
“We’re going to go to Albany to explain why it’s important not to allow any loopholes to exist,” he said. “But the sheriff is looking at whatever restrictions they’ve put in place and we’re going to operate within them.”
Some licensed dispensary owners, however, said that city and state officials needed to step up enforcement against illegal shops. Dave Nicponski, an owner of Freshly Baked in the Bronx, said he met with state officials earlier this year and that they promised to prioritize the area around his store for enforcement ahead of April 20, an unofficial cannabis holiday that is one of the biggest sales days of the year.
But of the dozen or so illegal shops near his dispensary on Arthur Avenue, only one has been targeted, he said. “There has been no serious effort of enforcement around us.”
About half of licensed retailers in the state believe the problem of unlicensed sellers has not improved or has worsened, Mr. Nicponski said, citing an internal survey conducted by the New York Cannabis Retail Association, an industry group. Mr. Nicponski is a board member of the association.
Mr. Nicponski said licensed retailers could not survive alongside illegal sellers, who are able to unload weed cheaply because they do not buy their products from licensed suppliers, pay taxes on cannabis sales or abide by the state’s strict rules.
“From every angle, the presence and proliferation of these stores and their continued existence unabated is devastating for these licensed sellers,” he said. “They’re being undercut left and right because the state and city doesn’t seem to have any willingness or capacity to do what they need to do.”
Representatives of the mayor and the state cannabis agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Wednesday.
Mike Bancale, 36, one of Salsa’s owners, said his pizzeria had no connection to the unlicensed smoke shop. He said he learned the storefront’s history only when the sheriff stopped by about a month ago.
He and his business partners — his childhood friend Antonella Padulo, 34, and her husband, Manuel Ramirez, 40 — had spent months searching nearby neighborhoods for a place. Mr. Ramirez had stumbled on the empty storefront on a walk last year, Mr. Bancale said.
The shop “checked all the boxes,” he said, listing their requirements: on a corner, one story tall, and owned by someone willing to rent to a restaurant that needed to build a brick oven.
“We got a good deal,” Mr. Bancale said. “We’re happy.”
Walter Palacios, 52, a mattress salesman who works nearby, stopped by the pizzeria on Wednesday with his wife, Zulma, 50, and their two children, Maya, 14, and Enzo, 8. It was his third visit.
The city has done a good job shutting down the smoke shops, he said, noting that fewer of them seemed to be opening.
“If they could find a way, a loophole, something — just block them from opening, that’d be good.”
Ashley Southall writes about cannabis legalization in New York.
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