As NYC cracks down on illegal weed shops, 3,000 are going up in smoke. It’s no ‘urban doom loop,’ but could be a ray of hope for priced-out legal retailers

NYC Mayor Eric Adams (Credit: Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Daily News)

For the nearly 3,000 unlicensed cannabis dispensaries operating across New York City, it was fun while it lasted. 

Since the city received the go-ahead from the state last month to crack down on illegal weed shops, hundreds have been shut down by law enforcement, while other sellers are seeing the writing on the wall and packing up voluntarily. And those thousands of departed stores could mean thousands of vacant retail properties across the city.