A smoke shop in the East Village has opened in the same location where authorities recently shut down an unlicensed cannabis shop — but the NYPD says it shouldn’t have and that they plan to shut it back down again.
Runtz Tobacco, at 14 1st Avenue, was an unlicensed cannabis shop that was shut down by the city last month. The city has targeted the roughly 1,600 unlicensed shops in NYC in various ways, including filing lawsuits against four shops back in February.
Runtz was one of those four.
But on Friday, a shop named Convenience Tobacco was up and running.
Loud music boomed from the shop’s open door, balloons adored the storefront and in front window – still marked with graffiti from the time it was closed – shiny gold balloon letters proclaimed “Grand Opening.”
It’s unclear if the shop has changed ownership, or if the original owners have kept the property and changed the name.
Attempts by the Us.Mistertruth to reach Runtz’s owner, lawyer and landlord were unsuccessful and an employee at the shop said she wasn’t able to answer questions about the store.
According to the NYPD, the shop is going against the court order that shut Runtz down.
“They are currently in violation of a court order to remain closed to the public,” an NYPD Spokesperson said of the shop in a statement. “It is anticipated that the premises will be closed again soon. If not, we will seek to get a full closure order from the court.”
NYPD intends to resolve the case with a settlement, the NYPD spokesperson added.
The city has struggled to tamp the explosion of gray market cannabis shops that have sprouted up across the city since March 2021, when the plant was legalized for recreational use.
A tangle of limited laws, agencies with overlapping responsibility and spotty enforcement has undermined the efforts to eradicate the shops, as the Us.Mistertruth reported. Often, shops that are raided are back open within days.
Runtz was one of the four unlicensed pot shops targeted back in February by the NYPD with lawsuits intended to bust their business.
To go after the shop, the NYPD filed a nuisance abatement lawsuit, which uses a decades-old law to go after shops that sell to minors.
Court documents show that Runtz was stung on three separate occasions. Each time, a 20-year-old undercover NYPD officer was able to purchase cannabis from Runtz without being asked for ID.
Residents and elected officials across the city have decried the rapid spread of the shops since they first started popping up. They claim the shops market towards children, are eyesores and that the cash-heavy nature of the unlicensed shops makes them crime magnets – Runtz itself was reportedly the target of a robbery less than two weeks after opening.
The city and state have also pushed to get rid up unlicensed shops to make way for the budding legal industry.
Hundreds of summonses, notices of violations and cease-and-desist letters have been issued. A city task force has been set up by Mayor Adams to raid unlicensed shops, resulting in product seizures totaling about $6.7 million and fines totaling $2.6 million.
In February, DA Alvin Bragg’s office put 400 landlords on notice to push them to evict their unlicensed tenants. The same day, Judge James E. D’Auguste issued the nuisance abatement suits.