The City of Syracuse has closed five smoke shops for illegally selling cannabis products. New York State investigators recently seized products being sold without proper state licensing at two shops near Syracuse University, two on the north side, and one downtown. Mayor Ben Walsh says there are many more on their list, and urges customers to be very cautious.
“If you're walking into your neighborhood bodega, your corner store, and you see what appear to be marijuana or cannabis like products for sale, you need to know that they are not legal and it's likely that the people selling them in those stores don't even know what's in there.”
Walsh says state regulated dispensaries are held to a high standard in terms of product content and quality. There’s only one licensed retailer in the city. Walsh says the rest are not only illegal, but could be selling potentially dangerous products.
“They're not held to any standard," Walsh said. "No one is clear on what exactly they're ingesting and we do have experiences where we believe that people that have had very bad reactions to ingesting these products that they're coming from these stores.”
Walsh says the stores began popping up the moment the state legalized recreational marijuana. But the licensing process for legal outlets has been so flawed and slow that it’s the subject of a lawsuit. Walsh says more legal dispensaries probably wouldn’t make much difference.
“Ultimately, as long as people think they can get away with it and they're not held to the same standards and regulations, they're going to try to get away with it because there's money to be made," Walsh said. "But again, it's dangerous. It's a problem in our neighborhoods.”
Walsh says it’s only a matter of time before the state and city shut down other illegal retailers. Meanwhile, he urges consumers to stay away from them.
