Addressing Legal Cannabis Challenges: Time to Take Action

The two lawsuits have been settled, one of which led to an injunction that stopped the opening of hundreds of legal cannabis shops. Mayor Adams and Sheriff Anthony Miranda are renewing efforts to hold landlords liable for their tenants’ sale of illegal cannabis.

The teetering market needs to be encouraged and righted after early implementation problems at every level. The loans taken out by small business owners are restrictive and the slow rollout has caused significant recurring costs. It’s difficult to imagine any enforcement that could significantly reduce the estimated thousands of illegal shops across the city.

The city’s plan to target landlords has been in place for some time. Efforts to hit landlords with fines for allowing unlicensed cannabis sellers haven’t yielded much yet. It might be best to wait for market oversaturation to collapse and then focus enforcement on the remaining shops. Legal shops face competition from rivals that don’t adhere to costly regulations.

The bungling of legislators and administrators is disheartening. It’s time to fix what has been broken.