New York City has long had its struggles with crime. In fact, these struggles predate the election of Mayor Eric Adams. When the Democratic mayor was elected, he said he’d make good of his background as a police officer to rid the city of crime.
Needless to say, this hasn’t happened yet. Crime has continued to spiral out of control. In fact, viral videos out of New York City show people being attacked at random. Then, there are reports of attacks on subways made by homeless persons and other individuals.
However, one key crime problem facing New York City deals with shops that are illegally selling marijuana. This has spiraled so far out of control that Mayor Adams is now requesting assistance from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, per Daily Mail.
This Looks Bad
Right now, law enforcement in New York virtually has its hands tied when it comes to halting the illegal sale of pot. As things stand, the most police can do is issue relatively low fines of $250.
According to Adams, the laws on the books aren’t good enough. The mayor has also claimed that kids are now being targeted by illegal sellers of drugs. During a press conference last week, Adams even stressed that what’s happening now is creating a “mockery” of New York.
These dispensaries are *everywhere* now 🍪🧸🍎
Society okays marijuana and more kids use it. Now, 1,400 illegal shops in New York City https://t.co/fnWI4vLYLN
More Bramhall cartoons https://t.co/yQoLJEXjES pic.twitter.com/oXeslCuLoF
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) February 23, 2023
Therefore, the New York City mayor wants the governor to approve higher fines and stronger action from law enforcement.
Gov. Hochul, so far, has yet to make any public announcements about the request from the New York City mayor.
Little Hope?
Despite the protests from Adams, Hochul doesn’t have the best record of cracking down on crime. Therefore, he shouldn’t get his hopes up for the New York governor pressing the state legislature to pass laws that put a stop to illegal marijuana in the community.
During last year’s gubernatorial election, Hochul was repeatedly pressed about the problem of crime in New York. This was often brought up by Hochul’s GOP challenger, Lee Zeldin.
Hochul says Zeldin is “hyperventilating” about crime in New York. pic.twitter.com/TzmgDSHzua
— Kerry Picket (@KerryPicket) November 7, 2022
During the race, Hochul constantly dismissed Zeldin’s concerns, brushed off crime when he spoke about it as a serious problem, and offered no solutions outside of more gun control to restore law and order.
All things considered, it is very safe to assume that crime in New York, whether it’s the unlawful sale of marijuana or something else entirely, is going to persist.
If the people of New York elect GOP leadership in the future, then perhaps crime rates will go down.
Do you believe New York is going to fix the problems it’s having with illegal marijuana sales anytime soon? Let us know what you suspect will happen next for New York and its problems with marijuana being illegally sold.
