Tag: new york

New York cannabis farms have nowhere to sell a combined 300,000 pounds of weed, valued at $750 million, as delays continue for dispensaries in the state

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of marijuana are currently sitting idly on New York cannabis farms without a single legal recreational dispensary in the state open and ready to sell the product.

An estimated 300,000 pounds of weed are becoming a growing concern for farmers who planted the crop in spring 2021 in hopes of cashing in on the drug’s legalization in New York state. The lot is valued at about $750 million based on the average wholesale value of $2,500 per pound, according to Bloomberg.

Today, the legal recreational cannabis market is stalled as applicants for the first 150 individual retail licenses and 25 nonprofit licenses are still waiting to hear back from the Office of Cannabis Management, per Bloomberg.

Although players in the industry are waiting for the green light from the state, Melany Dobson — CEO of New York-based Hudson Cannabis — told Bloomberg it’s not the only thing holding her and others back.

“It’s an unclear path to market,” Dobson said. “We’ve been told again and again that dispensaries will open before the end of the year. I’ve acted as though that’s our single source of proof, so we’re prepared for that.”

The clock is ticking for the freshly harvested pounds of pot as farmers work to extend its shelf life in preparation for the still-to-come legal dispensaries.

“Old cannabis starts to have a brownish glow,” Dobson said. 

She continued: “We’re trying to retain as much quality as possible. And rushing it into the finished product bags is not the way to do that.”

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Cities Are Teaching Drug Users How to Shoot Up Properly

As drug users grapple with an increasingly toxic drug supply, some are receiving training on how to shoot up properly and achieve the high they’re seeking.  

“What we learned really quickly when we started working with people who use drugs is that everything they learn about drug use generally comes from their peers, the Internet, TV, movies, and it’s all wrong,” said Kailin See, senior director of OnPoint NYC, which runs New York’s safe injection sites, also known as drug consumption sites. 

“You can’t go to your medical doctor and say, ‘I’m really trying to achieve X, Y, and Z physical feeling or X, Y, and Z emotional feeling through my drug use’.” 

While people generally think of drug consumption sites as places that people go to use drugs and have their overdoses reversed if needed, these facilities often offer a range of services, including checking drugs for contaminants, wound care, and injection tutorials. 

And injecting drugs properly has only become more important as overdoses reach record highs and drugs like tranq, a combination of fentanyl and the animal sedative xylazine that’s been linked to skin ulcers and amputations, continue to spread across the U.S. Knowing what to do can also help empower younger drug users, women and queer people, who might find themselves particularly vulnerable in certain situations. 

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New York bans most civilians from wearing bulletproof vests

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has banned most state residents from buying bulletproof vests for civilian use with very few exceptions.

The law, which went into effect on July 6, banned all state residents “not engaged or employed in an eligible profession” from purchasing, owning, selling, exchanging, giving away or personally disposing of body armor.

The “eligible professions” initially only included police officers, peace officers and people currently serving in the United States Armed Forces or in the New York State Army or Air National Guard.

The law was pushed through the New York State Legislature following the mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo in May that killed 10 people. When the law was initially passed, it only banned “bullet-resistant soft body armor,” which could have potentially served as a loophole for civilians who wanted to buy bulletproof vests made with steel, ceramic or polyethylene plates.

Notably, this loophole does not cover the steel-plated vest the Buffalo gunman wore during the shooting, which was strong enough to stop a bullet fired from the firearm of one of the grocery store’s security guards.

Democratic State Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson, the lead sponsor of the bill, admitted that they did not know the difference between the different kinds of body armor when they were writing the bill.

“I think the important thing was that we took important steps that lessened the possibility that criminals will be using bulletproof vests in commission of crimes,” he claimed, adding that he is willing to rework the legislation to cover body armor using steel, ceramic or polyethylene plates.

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Gov. Hochul’s SUVs are cloaked from traffic cameras

Gov. Kathy Hochul might not be camera shy on the campaign trail, but her state trooper-driven vehicles travel incognito when it comes to being photographed for speeding and running red lights.

Both Hochul and Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado – Democrats pushing campaign platforms aimed at curbing car use — are chauffeured around New York city and state in SUVs equipped with license plates that can’t be flagged by traffic cameras, The Post has learned.

Unlike Mayor Eric Adams’ NYPD security detail and other city officials whose vehicles aren’t cloaked from the camera program’s scrutiny, state-owned vehicles used by State Police’s protective services unit to transport Hochul, her Democratic running mate and their staff come back as “NO-HIT” on the Department of Motor Vehicles database.

A State Police spokesman confirmed the plate numbers are designed to remain anonymous “as a security measure,” adding such protocol has been in place roughly 50 years.

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As crime surges, Eric Adams tells New Yorkers subway safety is up to them

As NYC subway crime is up 41 percent this year, Mayor Eric Adams told his citizens on Friday that the solution to warding off violent criminals is to stop looking at phones and stop listening to music as New Yorkers make their daily rides.

Eric Adams was speaking on Good Day New York and anchor Bianca Peters said, “I rode the subway yesterday, and it’s the same thing. I haven’t put my AirPods in for over a year because I feel like I need to be very much aware.” Adams replied, “Well first, I think that you were right about, you know, not having your iPods in – not focusing on the phone, and I say yes to that. I do the same, and we put out a video and information telling people about being aware of what’s around them and what’s taking place. I encourage New Yorkers to do that.” 

The Blue Lives Matter Twitter account responded and wrote, “Under-pressure NYC mayor Eric Adams tells residents to put their phones away, carry pepper spray, tasers and stop using Apple Airpods – suggesting unaware subway riders may be the REASON for rising violent crime.” 

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New York wants to ban the sharing of violent crime videos online

Leaders in the state of New York are calling for the criminalization of sharing videos of violent crime.

While the proposals are seemingly ignorant of the First Amendment, and were spurred by a mass shooting, they also could be used to stop people from sharing videos of crimes that take place in the city.

Overall indexed crime in New York City increased in July 2022 by 30.5% compared with July 2021 and, after a recent uptick in crime in New York over the last two years, social media users are sharing videos of violent crime to draw attention to a reversing trend.

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NY mom arrested after she lets her 10-yr-old get a tattoo, but puberty blockers and breast removal is A-OK?

Does your young child want to take life-altering hormones? No problem. Would the kid like to remove her breasts or his testicles? New York state has got you covered. But God forbid you let your 10-year-old get a tattoo. That will get your kids snatched by Child Protective Services (CPS) and you’ll end up in handcuffs.

That’s the lesson learned by Crystal Thomas, 33, who was arrested for endangering the welfare of a child after she allowed her son to get a tattoo from an amateur artist in the motel room in which she and her two children were staying, the Daily Mail reports.

Following her arrest, Thomas was released on an appearance ticket, but it is unclear if her children have been returned to her.

The tattoo, which Lloyd Police Chief James Janso told the Daily Mail measures “around six to eight inches in length,” was “not a professional job.”

Thomas’s son discovered that the man in the neighboring room of the Highland Motel, located near Poughkeepsie, was doing tattoos and he wanted one.

Mom allegedly gave him permission, and he came back with his name emblazoned in block letters on his inner forearm.

Police were called by the school resource officer after the young boy went to the school nurse to get Vaseline to apply over the fresh ink.

According to Janso, the nature of the mother’s relationship with the tattoo artist is unknown, and the man has since left the motel, which caters to guests who are only interested in “transient stays.”

Lloyd Police Department investigators are currently following up on leads in an attempt to hunt the artist down.

Now, it is unlikely that many would support Thomas’s decision to let her kid get tattooed for life by a guy in the room next door, but the astounding hypocrisy of actions against her in a state that prides itself on offering the so-called “gender-affirming care” of minors has not been missed by users on Twitter.

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Ex-NYC Associate Principal Sentenced To Prison For Child Enticement

Jonathan Skolnick was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for enticing minor children to send him nude and sexually explicit photographs and videos of themselves over the Internet. On April 5, 2022, Skolnick pled guilty.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “For approximately seven years, Jonathan Skolnick abused his position of trust as an associate principal and teacher in New York City schools by posing as a teenage girl online and successfully enticing minor victims, including his own students, to send him child pornography. This lengthy prison sentence holds Skolnick accountable for his horrific crimes and the extraordinary harm and trauma he caused to many minor victims and their families.”

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CCP Runs Police Outpost in New York City, Part of Global Network of Transnational Repression

Chinese authorities have opened at least one “overseas police service station” in the United States as part of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) global transnational repression, according to human rights group Safeguard Defenders.

“These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law, and may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods,” the Spain-based group said in a recent report.

The report, titled “110 Overseas: Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild,” examined the initiative first launched by ten “pilot provinces” in 2018. These stations were also called 110 Overseas, named after the country’s police emergency services phone number.

An outpost in New York City was among the “first batch” of 30 overseas police service stations in 21 countries set up by the Public Security Bureau in Fuzhou city, the capital of the southern coastal province of Fujian. Other Chinese cities also set up their own outposts abroad.

The Chinese police authorities’ division in New York was opened on Feb. 15, according to Dongnan News, a media outlet backed by Fujian provincial government. The center, called Fuzhou Police Oversea Service Station, is located at 107 East Broadway, inside the headquarters of the American ChangLe Association (ACA), a non profit with close ties to the Chinese regime.

Safeguard Defenders identified 54 overseas police service stations across five continents, including in cities from Toronto to Dublin.

Yet the total number of such stations is unclear. “There is no complete list of such “110 Overseas” police service stations available,” the report stated. “[T]he number is undoubtedly larger and such stations more widespread,” it added.

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Homeless getting kicked out of shelters to make room for illegal immigrants in Eric Adams’ NYC

Multiple sources in the Bronx have alleged that New York’s homeless are being kicked out of shelters to make room for the illegal immigrants making their way to New York City. 

“I’ve seen a high traffic of immigrants who are seeking political asylum overcrowding these shelters,” a high level Bronx community leader who wished to remain anonymous shared, “our local citizens who have been in these shelters for over 2 years have been kicked out and are sleeping in the streets and not getting the resources they need.”

She went on to share that the homeless population has “increased tremendously” sharing that they are now camping out in the train stations, buses, churches or squatting illegally in front of people’s homes. 

Donnie “Kayborn” Rivers, who has run a nonprofit in the Bronx for the past seven years, had a similar story to tell. “You go to the train and there’s a lot of people sleeping on the train too..and i really feel that a lot of that is happening because of the people that’s coming, the immigrants that’s coming,” he said.

He further went on to detail how not only have the homeless population been overlooked by the city, but Mayor Eric Adams was quick to invest time, money and resources for the influx of illegal immigrants making their way to New York.

“The mayor just finished opening up a whole encampment up in Orchard Beach where they’re housing people from another country,” Rivers shared, “but our people still sleeping on the train and still sleeping outside.” 

Adams, who invested 150 million dollars into the project, has since scrapped building the camps in the parking of Orchard Beach due to safety concerns. 

Residents of the Bronx on Monday, organized a press conference calling out the humanitarian and safety concerns of building the camps in this location. 

“It’s inhumane, it’s dangerous and it was not well thought out. I don’t think Mayor Adams even came to look at the site before doing it,” one resident stated, “Did he see that there was a playground there and just didn’t care?” she asked, pointing to the child’s playground located in the same parking lot as the camp.

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