Calls for crackdown on NYC's $2billion Wild West cannabis industry that preys ... trends now
New York’s two-billion-dollar marijuana industry is under fire for hawking child-friendly products such as candies and flavored vapes.
Experts today called for restrictions on selling locations and higher penalties for illegal shops, saying the situation is spiraling out of control and has become a 'danger' to communities.
A staggering 1,400 shops in New York City are selling cannabis products illegally, creating what legislators and anti-legalization activists have called the 'Wild West.'
Products designed to look like Sour Patch Kids, Doritos, and other popular snacks have been able to remain on store shelves thanks to the state’s lackluster enforcement tools - creating a surge in accidental poisonings among children.
Edible marijuana products are often disguised at common snacks that appeal to kids - think gummies, chips, and chocolates. Anti-legalization advocates are slamming lax laws that keep these products on store shelves illegally
Luke Niforatos, Executive Vice President at the anti-cannabis legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana told DailyMail.com: ‘People hear about this wild west of literally thousands of different kinds of youth appealing products. And they think, well, let's just write laws to regulate that. Well, every single state that's legalized marijuana has in their law [that] companies cannot make products that appeal to youth and yet we have these products anyway.'
Mr Niforatos said the problem is not only a lack of comprehensive laws on the books. It’s politicians’ minimal wherewithal to confront the offending companies.
‘The state governments are not regulating the industry appropriately because they can't or there's not the political willpower to do it. And the industry is so well financed, they have the best lobbyists and the best lawyers who dance circles around what's written in this legislation.’
Just one dispensary in New York City is operating with the proper licensing and authorities unable to do much more to shut down the rogue cannabis clubs.
Sheriff Anthony Miranda and other law enforcement officials complained about weak penalties at a City Council hearing on Wednesday, noting that existing laws make it difficult to immediately close illicit shops and often can issue only measly $250 fines for selling cannabis without a license.
Sheriff Miranda said: 'There’s a lot of marketing that’s going to children. There’s a lot of public health issues, danger to the community. We want to make sure they’re in compliance.'
Child-friendly packaging is rampant in the US. A study out last year of 256 photos of cannabis-infused edibles packaging sold in 24 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico from May 2020 to August 2021 found that 15 percent of the packaging were knockoffs of brand-name products.
Features that would appeal to children such as characters and creatures, flavor images, and flavor text were present on 23 percent, 35 percent, and 91 percent of labels, respectively.
In New York, recreational marijuana was legalized in March 2021. The law included a provision that explicitly forbids marketing and advertising that ‘is designed in any way to appeal to children or other
