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 Daily News 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 Daily News reported. Often, shops that are raided are back open within days.
Runtz was one of the four unlicensed pot shops targeted back in…
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