Syracuse, N.Y. — Another lawsuit has been filed accusing the city of Syracuse of illegally shutting down a retail shop after a state and local crackdown on illicit sales of marijuana in the city in September.
The new lawsuit, filed Tuesday in State Supreme Court, asks a judge to lift a city order that shut Smoke City, a shop at 1105 N. Salina St. The shop has been closed since September under the city codes department’s declaration that it is “unfit for human occupancy.” The suit also seeks damages, amounting to more than $30,000, for lost revenues and other costs during the shutdown.
“The City is reviewing the complaint and will respond in Court,” Greg Loh, the city’s chief policy officer, said in a statement to syracuse.com today.
This is the second such case filed against the city since the September crackdown. The earlier case involves a shop called T’s Wireless in downtown Syracuse. In that case, a judge has already issued an order allowing T’s Wireless to reopen. The case has since been transferred to federal court.
In September, Smoke City, T’s Wireless and three other shops were shut down by the city following inspection by agents of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management and Department of Taxation and Finance. The state agencies cited the shops for possessing illicit marijuana and/or selling it without proper licenses.
The city codes office then visited the five shops and declared each of them unfit for occupancy, while contending they were in violation of city codes and/or ordinances.
But the lawsuits for T’s Wireless and Smoke City claim the city exceeded its jurisdiction and violated its own laws by shutting the shops down as part of an illicit cannabis case. Both shops are represented by lawyer Brady O’Malley of the Nave Law Firm.
“Defendants’ improvisational abuse of code enforcement power as a means to ‘regulate’ the local cannabis market plainly violates state and local law,” the lawsuit for Smoke City says….
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