NYC weed shops crackdown is great news, but without wider reform will just be Whack-a-Mole

An illegal NYC weed shop saw the hammer come down last week as part of a wider city crackdown on such stores: Good — but not good enough. 

Western Green, a Queens store operating in flagrant violation of the laws prog legislators assured us would make the retail pot market safe, got raided and shuttered, its copious inventory confiscated. 

One down — 2,900-plus to go. 

The city’s in this mess thanks to the total botch Albany made of New York’s legal pot rollout.

The Legislature wrapped that effort in suffocating “equity” red-tape, meaning that those wanting to set up illegal shops were guaranteed a massive head start. 

Then, lawsuits driven by the equity nonsense — many triggered by the incompetent Office of Cannabis Management’s bizarre push to hand licenses to former crooks first — slowed things even more. 

Plus, the state’s legal-pot law made it basically impossible for local cops to fight back against illegal sellers in the city. 

Add in the best efforts of pro-crime progressives to wreck public safety generally, and here we are: an open black market in weed, with neon signs blazing loud and proud where it used to just be corner boys. 

Don’t forget that a big chunk of these stores’ weed products come in packaging that mimics popular snacks — i.e., they’re aimed at literal children. 

Gov. Hochul showed real spine on the issue and fought for a new law, now enacted, to make crackdowns against illegal shops a bit easier; she’s also cleaning house at OCM in the wake of a damning investigation.  

And every small blow for public order is a good one, so bravo to that and the shutdown of Western Green and every other illegal shop caught in the dragnet. 

But playing whack-a-mole against these community-wrecking scofflaws is not a viable strategy.

Trouble is, thanks to the crime-lovers among New York’s Democrats, that’s still pretty much the only tool available to law enforcement. 

Until that changes, we fear the number of illegal pot shops will stay sky-high.