 Good afternoon, I am a Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. I want to thank everyone for joining us for this important announcement regarding unlicensed, untaxed and unregulated marijuana sales. I want to just pause at the moment just to say that our thoughts and prayers are with the officer from the 47th precinct. I want to thank all of the partners in government and law enforcement who are standing with us. Of course, starting with the CEO of our great city, Mayor Eric Adams, New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda, New York City Corporation Council Judge Hinsraddix, Christopher Alexander, the Director of the Office of Cannabis Management. Our borough president, Mark Levine, and our council member for where we're standing right now in the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Investigations, Gail Brewer. And we're also joined by a number of our outstanding council members from around the borough. Council members, Botcher, Rivera, Marte, and Abreju. We're also joined by outstanding members of my office, the district attorney's office, assistant district attorney's McCabe, Costello, and Galperin. I just wanted to set the stage. On March 31st, 2021, the governor of the state of New York signed into law the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, creating a comprehensive regulatory structure to oversee the licensure, cultivation, production, distribution, sale, and taxation of medical, adult use, and cannaboid hemp within New York State. It was a long overdue step. For decades, black and brown communities bore the brunt of marijuana enforcement. It unfairly criminalized young people, drove mass incarceration, and failed to make our community safe. We personally saw the impact of that growing up in Harlem, and we do not want to go back to those days. But just as the end of alcohol prohibition in the 1930s didn't mean just anyone could start selling homemade bathtub gin to their local store. Marijuana legalization in New York came with rules, and those rules must be respected. Instead of respect for the law, what we have seen recently is the proliferation of store fronts across New York City selling unlicensed, unregulated, untaxed cannabis products. I commend our sheriff, Sheriff Miranda, and our partners at the NYPD for taking action to counter this trend. In a two week period, the sheriff's office issued 566 violations and seized $4.1 million worth of product at 53 locations. Likewise, the NYPD sees an additional 20 trucks and buses selling unlicensed cannabis. Enforcement actions like these, no doubt, will continue and will continue to discourage unlawful behavior. But we need to bring additional tools to bear to this problem. In the last month, the first licensed cannabis debensaries opened for business in Greenwich Village. One is owned by a not-for-profit that supports people living with HIV and AIDS. The other by a formerly incarcerated entrepreneur who received priority for unlicensed because he is one of countless black men who was harmed by the drug war in the 1990s. But those legitimate businesses face stiff competition from shops that are not following the rules. It is time for the operation of unlicensed cannabis dispensaries to end. So today, my office sent letters to approximately 400 smoke shops in Manhattan. We informed these shops that my office is prepared to use our civil authority under real property actions and proceedings law section 751. To require owners and landlords to commence eviction proceedings against commercial tenants who are engaged in a legal business activity. Including the unlicensed sale of cannabis, the sale of untaxed cigarettes, and the sale of adulterated products. If owners and landlords fail to initiate timely eviction proceedings against these commercial tenants that are in violation of the law or fail to prosecute those proceedings diligently, my office is prepared to take over and pursue eviction proceedings. While we are not ruling out criminal prosecutions for tax evasion, money laundering, or the sale of cannabis to minors, the focus of this initiative at this time is civil enforcement. We want to give New York's legal cannabis market a fair chance to thrive and give New Yorkers the security of knowing that a safe orderly system is in place for cannabis dispensaries. Advocates fought hard to put racial equity at the center of New York's cannabis legalization regime. Past convictions were automatically expunged or suppressed. People with past convictions for marijuana and their family members are being given priority for these licenses. 50% of licenses are set aside to social and economic equity applicants. The state created an incubator program to encourage these applicants and provide technical assistance to first time small business owners. And very importantly, 40% of the tax revenues from legal cannabis will be invested back into communities that were most harmed by prohibition. Those who flout the cannabis tax laws and regulations are robbing the very communities that suffered from marijuana criminalization for decades. Communities that are finally on the cusp of benefiting from a just and equitable system. We cannot allow that, I will not allow that. I hope to see full cooperation from building owners and commercial landlords as we pursue this education and criminal enforcement strategy. Together we can level the playing field for New York's legal cannabis market and deliver on the promise of equity and fairness that legalization of advocates fought so long and hard for. I now want to turn the podium over to the CEO of our great city, Mayor Eric Adams. Thank you. I like to say the pilot, you know, you're all passengers on this plane, right Marsha? No, this is just good coordination. And it's really about what you're seeing and I hope is the hallmark of this cohort of elected, particularly with the district attorney as we continue to combine the use and the powers of our offices to go after those things that historically we attempted to fight in silos of what the district attorney is doing around mental health. It's just really a compliment to what our goals are getting those who are living on the streets or in households that don't have the services they need. And now we're looking at the issue of cannabis of just a few weeks ago, we saw the opening of a few locations and we saw an over-proliferation of those who thought they were going to skirt the law. There's a few dynamics to that. I think proper education is at the hallmark of what we must do. When you read and state that marijuana is legal, many people took it that you can just open up a location anywhere you want and that is why we started with a level of education. We wanted to let people know that you can't just open a shop. And then the real partnership with our law makers, Councilwoman Gail Brewer, has a very clear of the large number of locations that have opened in her district. The bar president of Manhattan has also joined that. The local electives that are here with us today have also pointed out these locations. And these locations, believe it or not, if you do an analysis, they're starting to feed robbery patterns. People realize that this is a cash business. They are targeting these businesses and it is causing a level of robbery in these locations. So this holistic civil approach is also going to be connected to a public safety mechanism as well. You can't just open a shop and sell marijuana. There are rules, and we must abide by those rules in a very real way. And I was remiss, but I also want to thank you, District Attorney, and join your call, our prayers, with the officer from the 47th Precinct. I communicated earlier with the police commissioner. And our hearts and prayers are with him and his family. And as we get new information, we will keep everyone up to date. This is what this administration is zeroing in on. And the sheriff, Anthony Miranda, has really brought an approach of how we confiscate, educate, and not focus on incarcerated. That is not our goal. Our goal is not to turn one punitive approach to marijuana possession into another punitive approach. But we're very clear on those who are having high volumes and are tempted to skirt the law. We're going to use every level of government to address this. Legalizing cannabis was a major step forward, but we're not going to sit back and watch that progression go up in smoke because people want to emerge in an illegal market. Especially when so many of them are selling unlawful and unlicensed products that could seriously harm consumers. These products are not tested, in some cases they could be laced with fentanyl. These are dangerous products, and the public must be aware of that. And New Yorkers have had enough. They've sent a loud and clear message that these illegal smoke shops are unnoticed. And we're giving that notice today. They will be evicted. In many cases, those supplies that they're selling illegally, if it's over of the legal amount, they're going to be confiscated. And there could also get an additional $5,000 penalty against them, including any type of legal payments that they have to have. And so the team has been focusing on this, the district attorney, the police department, our sheriffs, our agency of rocus protection. We've all focused on this with the assistance of our local electors. So these letters of notice are just one piece of our ongoing cannabis enforcement plan. We wanted to meet this immediately before it continues to spread throughout our entire city. We keep a database of locations when our patrol forces identify a location. We keep a database on it, and we're going to continue to evolve on how we're going to carry out our enforcement. So today we are also taking direct actions against four unlicensed smoke shops in the ninth precinct. The Corporation Council of Judge Radix will go into that. These individuals have been selling cannabis without a license and were illegally selling products to underage auxiliary offices as part of our test cases. So those who are selling illegal cannabis, they have no regard if you're selling it to minors or anyone else. This is a real issue that we are zeroing in on. And we're not going to stand by why illegal outlets sell drugs and vapes to our children. While simultaneously undermining an emerging industry that can provide jobs and justice for adults. This justice and jobs that we have fought for for years. We're not going to only use the tool of eviction, we're going to use the tool of proper enforcement. And that is why many of these initiatives are taking place at once. The two week inter-agency pilot program we ran in November put all of these locations on notice. And that is why we want to educate and we have continued our enforcement efforts in recent weeks against bad actors. We have given them plenty of time to clean up the act. We wanted to let them know that we're not going to stand out and be buying. And we won't stop until every illegal smoke shop is rolled up and stubbed out and know that there are ways to sell legal cannabis. We're clear that bad actors undermines the promise we made to New Yorkers who were impacted by marijuana criminalization. And I too like the DA, I have witnessed that not only as a civilian, but also in the police department watching individuals being swept up by possessions of small quantities of marijuana. This is the moment we waited for to legalize and make sure that it's done correctly. Cannabis criminalization was in all purpose too to arrest and prosecute young men and women in the city, particularly those of color that was wrong then. Is we wrong to have this process undermined. Legal cannabis is expected to be a $1.3 billion industry, $40 million per year in tax revenues. This can be a real windfall for our city. And it will support 19,000 to 24,000 local jobs. And so we have a moral obligation as well as a legal obligation to ensure that it is done correctly. So we're working with our new cannabis NYC office to make New York City aware of the opportunities that all New Yorkers should be aware of. We have witnessed how other municipalities did not get it right. We want to get it right here and we want to help the businesses access finance, legal services, marketing resources, and ensuring the emerging industry delivers equity to those who deserve it the most. Again, District Attorney, thank you so much for your partnership and moving this initiative forward. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. You mentioned partnership and coordination. I just want to thank the mayor for his leadership and also the accessibility of all of his senior staff. That's what helps us. GSD? Yes, morning, letters. And I also want to thank, I think I didn't do this at the top. I want to thank God at Riverside for hosting us, a tremendous community partner here on the Upper West Side. And the mayor mentioned enforcement action that the corporation council has taken. So now I wanted to call to the podium, Corporation Council Judge Hines-Ratkes. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you, Mayor Adams and D.A. Brack and Sheriff Miranda and Chief Madri from PD for this collaboration to improve the quality of life for New Yorkers. Together, we will ensure the growing serious problem that we face with unlicensed cannabis sales is abated. And that business owners are held accountable for floating the law. In addition to the good work that D.A. Brack and the Sheriff put to put the smoke shops on notice, the NYPD pursuant to a designation from the corporation council filed a nuisance abatement, at least four nuisance abatement cases today. The East Village community raised complaints with the NYPD and working with the law department, the city took action. The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, as stated by D.A. Brack, created comprehensive regulations for the sale of medical adult use cannabis. The law is grounded in best practices for public health and safety, including keeping cannabis products out of the hands of youth and establishing product quality and safety guidelines. These defendants have operated in contradiction to the best laws and regulations in threatening the public health. As detailed in our complaints on three separate occasions, we have each location between December 15th of 2022 and as recently as December 22nd of 2022, a plainclothes officer observed an undercover auxiliary officer under the age of 21 purchased cannabis from these defendant's smoke shops. The sales included blunts, mylar bags of cannabis, gable savage new year, yellow fruit stripes, premium roll 2020 future bubble gum, and dub garden Oreos. These prices range from $25 to $30. The NYPD tested the cannabis. Let me highlight for you. There was no fruit, or bubble gum, or candy in these purchases. Marketing these products to young people is equally concerning for my office. We've taken the first steps with the state Supreme Court in Manhattan to put a stop to this illegal activity and to bring these defendants into compliance. If defendants continue to ignore the law, we'll seek a court order to close them down. The state marijuana laws were carefully constructed to provide justice and equity to communities. They were also crafted to ensure the public health and safety is protected. No business should choose which laws to follow. We will continue to work with our government partners to hold violators and businesses accountable. The city's message to any business that thinks it can harm our communities and turn a blind eye to the law is we'll see you in court. Thank you, Judge. I will now hear from Christopher Alexander, the executive director of the New York State Office of Cannabis Management. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you, DA Bragg, for your leadership in this moment as well as for your organization here and bringing all these parties together to make sure that this law is brought to life in the right way. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, as always for your leadership. We have in the last several months done quite a bit to bring this law to life. I'm proud to stand as one of those advocates who fought for a long time to see this thing come to life. And you all hit on some of the key points that this is not what was fought for. These businesses that are skirting our rules, selling products attracted to minors, selling products to minors, doing so without reinvesting meaningfully in the communities in which they operate, not allowing the revenue to go back to the communities that have been impacted all, violate both the laws on the books, on the state cannabis law, state tax law, municipal law, penal law, but also the principle under the MRTA. And so we're proud to stand here. Our enforcement team, the newest state agency, so we've been building capacity. But we're proud to have been able to take this action with the New York City Sheriff's Office over the last several weeks and months and participate in the seizure of millions of pounds of cannabis, millions of pounds, millions of dollars worth of cannabis products. And really our focus here has been making sure that we're improving public health outcomes. We're not allowing the sale of products that are contaminated. We don't know where this product has come from. In many cases, we've heard products coming from out of state operators who've failed testing in their states and selling that product here to be sold on the streets of New York. And most of all, these products and these stores continue to confuse consumers. Who may have thought that legalization as it came to New York State would look a certain kind of way. This is not it. We're proud to have opened the first two dispensaries. As D.A. mentioned, one that's an organization that serves those who've been formerly incarcerated and those who are dealing with HIV and AIDS. And another to an individual who's been impacted himself from marijuana prohibition as disproportionate enforcement. We're proud to bring these types of operators into the space. We're proud to be breaking the stigma around cannabis and its potential uses and benefits. We're also proud to be changing the mold of what the cannabis industry can look like. But we cannot do that. We cannot do that while we have these listed shops draining necessary resources from our program and confusing the public. So we are really eager to continue to take on this work. The governor who has done the most to support our program coming to life, including making sure that the Office of Cannabis Management has all the resources that it needs. And we're still growing to capacity. But in the meantime, we've had to lean and work really collaboratively with our local partners. So this model here that you are laying out, D.A. Bragg, is one that I hope is replicated across the state. We're going to be calling every county official and every local government to make sure that they know to call your office when they want to know how it's done. So we appreciate all of you and your partnership. We're proud to stand with you. And as you said, the Marijuana Regulation Taxation Act is far reaching in its principles. And we are trying to do it right. And I believe that we are. But without this type of collaboration and partnership, it will continue to have our goals frustrated. And so I just thank you all and you're going to get back out there and continue to seize this product. Thank you. Thank you so much. Inspiring to hear from someone who advocated for it, now overseeing the implementation. Now I want to turn it over to my partner in government and I'm so proud to represent the borough of Manhattan. And even prouder to do it side by side with my dear friend, our borough president, Mark Levine. Thank you DA Bragg for leading on this issue and so much more grateful for our partnership. Mr. Mayor and your team, you're getting this done. More than just letters, thank you. Thank you also to my wonderful predecessor, Gayle Brewer, for raising hell about this issue. You're very good at raising hell, Gayle, and we appreciate you always. For those of you who are getting to know Goddard Riverside, if it's your first time visiting here, this is one of the best social service non-profits and housing non-profits in New York City and beyond to Rod Jones and the team. Thank you, thank you for what you're doing every day. What New York is trying to do here under Chris's leadership has never been done anywhere else in the country. We are the first state that is really investing in achieving equity in how this industry is rolled out. Every other state paid lip service to that. Every other state talked about achieving equity. They all failed. Every one of them has failed. We are the first state that's putting resources on the table that's designed a program with the explicit goal of impacting the communities who were brutalized in the so-called war on drugs. Giving those same communities a chance to achieve some economic empowerment as we roll out this industry. That is really hard. It is going to be really hard under the best of circumstances. It will be impossible if we have 1,400 unlicensed retailers in New York City. That equity play will not succeed and we have got to act. We have not succeeded yet. The sheriff has led, I think, hundreds of enforcement actions at this point. And we thank you for that. You've been seizing product and you've been levying fines and the stores are still there. Why is that? They're making so much money that they are seeing the lost product and the fines they're paying as just a cost of doing business. And they're continuing to operate. Now, this strategy of taking their leases, that's at a whole other level. And we know from more difficult times in the 70s, 80s, and 90s that that actually works. And I do believe this will work. So I commend the entire team for taking this step. This also matters to consumers. As Chris said, if you're buying from an illicit operator, you have no idea what you're putting in your body. You really don't. You are taking a risk. And as for young people, Judge, I think you described bubble gum flavor, maybe cotton candy flavor. I've seen cocoa puff flavor. Who are those meant to sell to? We all know. Those are deliberately targeting kids, and kids are buying from those stores. Make no mistake, there are people under 21 who are in our city who are buying from those illicit stores. That's not happening in the licensed dispensaries. Finally, this is also a problem for neighborhoods. Because as the mayor mentioned, these are magnets for robberies. They have so much cash on hand. Potentially like tens of thousands of dollars of cash on hand. And so they are targets, and that is making neighborhoods less safe. So for all of these reasons, we have to act. I am very proud of this team, this coalition that's come together. This is really important, and I'm looking forward to us getting this done. Thank you, everybody, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Borough President. So who better to end with than our council member? We're on the Upper West Side for a reason, Council Member Brewer. I think the Borough President said, raising hell, certainly you've been leading on this issue. And we've seen what you've done up and down the Upper West Side. So the tireless Council Member Gail Brewer. Thank you very much, D.A. Bragg, and for your amazing work and your staff. And I want to thank the mayor. You know, the mayor, you're wonderful, but you know who's even better is Sheriff Miranda. He is fabulous, just want to let you know. I am delighted to be at Goddard Riverside, and I want to echo what the Borough President said about Rod Jones. It's great to be here. So the reason that I became involved in this is that if you walk around from 54th to 108th Street, I started to see these pop-up smoke shops. And so we sent out interns, I'm known as the intern queen, we have a lot of interns. So they went from 54th last year to 108th Street, and they found 61, and now there are 63 smoke shops. I swear there were only six or seven a year before. And about half of them, we think at that moment last year, probably more now, we're selling illegally. I must admit, I wanted to see, so you know, I go into a smoke shop around midnight on 86th Street. There's a woman sitting there with her friend. And I'm like, what in hell's name am I going to say, because I don't know what to say. So I said, my bones hurt, because you know, I'm old. And she said, what do you need? So I knew that meant that there was something under the counter. That's pretty common for all of these. And then in December, we sent the results of our survey to the administration and we asked for enforcement and I want to say again thank you very much to Sheriff Miranda because he came to our district. We went, in one day, we went to three different shops. It was very interesting because you go to one shop, all of a sudden all the other shops in the area are closed for lunch. Because the person who is in that shop knows all the other shops and they didn't want to get busted, so they're all closed. Well, in two shops in particular, thanks very much, not only to the amazing staff of the sheriff, but also to Chris's shop, State Cannabis. Those two staff members, and there were about 10 people, worked really clearly to do two things, one, to take out all of the illegal merchandise. And of course, it's not only the cannabis, it's also cigarettes from North Carolina that are absolutely no stamp whatsoever. And so many cartoons, just what you said, not only bubble gum and cotton candy, but cartoons, obviously to sell to kids, advertise as cartoons. Potato chips and chocolate candy. I don't know how long it had been there, there was no date of when they were no longer any good. They've been there forever. So the issue was, those two staff members worked and brought out in one case about 18 carefully marked bags. In another case, about 20 carefully marked bags of illegal product. And I also want to thank Mr. Mayor, Consumer and Work and Protection, because they had also been there, trying a few days earlier to make sure that they had summonses. Then of course, after all of that, and the sheriff has managed to make sure that everything was properly marked. The next day, because one of these shops, we went to Zaza Waza, smoke shop, right near here, 87th Street. They opened the next day. All of the product was back on the shelf. And so the question is, thank you, Mr., everybody here, the mayor and the district attorney, because we do need to think of what we're going to do with the owners, I think, of these shops. Because we cannot deal with 1400 in this way. I'm a true believer, as everyone here is, in making sure that the legal shops that have gone through the state process have a chance of making it. And I believe even down in the village, the ones that are near housing works, there are 11 illegal shops right near there. We have to make sure that these illegal shops do not exist, because the legal ones need to make it. And second, the schools, I have many high schools in my district. We all have high schools, all my colleagues, the mayor, everybody has high schools and the kids are vaping. And it is not good for the kids, it's not good for academics, it's not good for our city. And I saw underage kids, it looked like they were 12 the other day in Zaza Waza. So it's on all levels a really bad thing. Also, some of these smoke shops are going within 500 feet of a high school and a school and 200 feet of faith based. And you know what, no liquor store does that, no restaurant does that that sells liquor. They know not to do this, but these shops just do it. So I'm here to say thank you because the process of giving summons is, which the sheriff does so articulately and does so well. I'm going to add what the mayor said, every time we're with the sheriff, he talks wonderfully to the owners and the merchants. Usually it's somebody who's, I don't know, in their 20s who is not the owner, always polite. We're not after incarceration, we're after, this is not legal. We're not after incarceration and he makes that very clear. But if we go the oath route, which is the administrative way where the summons need to be responded, it's a very long process. We have 90 days to respond and then of course the owners of the shop can make that even longer. So thank you, Mr. District Attorney, for finding another way to close down these damn smoke shops. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Brewer. I just wanted to end on a note of gratitude for all of our other council members. I acknowledged them at the beginning, but just wanted to do it again. Council members, Botcher, Rivera, Marte, and Ray who are on the front lines fighting these smoke shots in their districts. This is a borough-wide initiative. We're all locking arms on this, and I thank them for that. And I also wanted to again thank my team and pass on all the praise it was given to me too, the career lawyers of my office who are going to be doing all the work on this. ADA's Robin McCabe, Rick Costello, and Gary Galperin. The question comes to mind here. Is the city, is your office prepared to take 400-some shops to court and go through eviction proceedings that can often get complicated? You'll have to prove the landlord knew that illegal behavior was happening. Is there the capacity in your office in the city to take hundreds of shops to court versus just bluster? Well, the first hope is that putting people on notice as we're doing today in this fashion, those commercial landlords, that they will heed that warning. And then after that, this is what we do, we enforce the law every day ably through 500 career prosecutors. And so we will do what we do in other matters. We'll look at the data, we'll look at the evidence, we'll look at where things are most acute. Councilmember Brewer mentioned the cluster around the two that are operating legally. That area certainly is a primary concern. Other clusters we'll look at, the mayor mentioned, as I think our borough president, the magnet for other criminal activity, the robberies we've seen. So those are the kind of, this is what we do in the New York County DA's office. So those are the kind of issues and considerations we'll look at to do priorities. The screen in between the lines here sounds like you need to prioritize cases. You're not going to take everyone to court. Well, we're certainly not going to go in alphabetical order, right? I mean, what we do, and I don't mean to be coy about that, right? We do this on every issue, whether it's the coordination that the mayor and the NYP and I have been doing on guns, right? We're looking at those few who are harming the most of us. We're strategic, we are smart, and we are targeted. And we're going to bring that same rigor to bear to this issue. Just a question for everyone. You guys raised the issue of EMI testing, some of the seized marijuana. I'm wondering if somebody could tell me, what substances are you finding, some of the seized marijuana is adulterated with, Mr. May mentioned fentanyl. Yeah, we'll do that. Chief Madri was going to be here, but you're responding to this issue. We'll give you, that's a great question, we'll give a list of what we're finding and what they are mixed with, if it's fentanyl or others. So I'll have the NYPD give a list of what we're finding and we'll get that to you today. This issue has been a persistent and growing problem for over a year. So what's it so long to get to this point where you decide to leverage your authority to pressure the landlords? And then how soon could the city theoretically begin eviction proceedings? So the work has been going on previously. I think you heard the council member and others talk about the great work that the sheriff's been doing. I had in my opening remarks statistics about seizures and the work that NYPD has been doing. And so as with all issues that are developing, you start with some tools and then you pan out a bit. We think this is a tool that at this moment is one that can be particularly impactful. So there has been work that's been done. That work won't stop. We'll add this to that and we think together the totality, the coordination, the partnership you've heard about will really move the needle. And what about when evictions can begin? So as with all litigations and all initiatives of this, it's going to be very fact-born. So we start today. I mean, I'll say my hope is that nothing I have to bring a matter, right? But hopefully the commercial landlords will understand that they've been put on notice. Understand we've laid out in the statute and we'll want to get compliant. Those that aren't, we will continue to do some education and then we'll move forward. And I said to the last set of questions in a strategic manner. Is there any consequence for landlords who don't apply or business who just simply move to another location? We saw this in late 80s with launch mats that we're selling in this. It's an eviction proceeding, right? So the relief within the lawsuit itself would be from that premises. And as you see from just the coordinated effort here, we're not trying to move people from one location to another. We're trying to help this nascent industry and all the principles that undergird it stand up and flourish. This applies to, for the mayor, can you talk about how this might set a precedent city-wide? That doesn't matter. In spite of the ill-informed belief that Manhattan is. We're all a boroughs matter and because of the uniqueness of what the district attorney is doing in our routine, briefing with the other district attorneys, we're going to use this as an indicator of what the other counties are doing. Because they all think outside the box. And so it is important to use what the DA is doing here. They share information, they share best practices. We're all in one city and we're going to really roll out and now brief and share what the district attorney is doing here. But also we can't underestimate the power of what the corporation council is doing. She looked at this and her team and she told me there's another tool we can use in our toolbox. And we're going to go after using our tools as well. And then we may have to look at the laws and see what our strengths are after someone ignores the request to evict and remove. How do we use it to go after either having extensive fines or take action to remove their property? These are laws on the books, where we're not going to allow people to weigh how much money they're making. How much the fines are and say these are the cost of doing business. That can happen. Not whoever wants to chop it. We can talk with the smoke shop that was openly selling illegal marijuana in the West Village. And they said, look, we need more licenses. We're all selling, we want to sell legally, but what can the state do to increase the number of licenses to make this work for everyone? Any response? We've been rolling out our licenses, but we're doing so in a way that the law dictates, making sure that those who've been impacted have an opportunity to go first. But we're also trying to build, this is a heavy regulated industry. Everything from making sure that we're tracking products from seed to sale, making sure that we're dictating what type of consumer education has to be made available at the storefront. We're doing a lot to make sure this is a well-regulated market. And so to folks who are going now and asking the question, why not just give us a license? Well, you've obviously demonstrated your ability to maintain compliance. And so that's a criteria of examining whether or not someone should get a license. So, I mean, we agree. We got to keep going. We've been at this now for a year, and we've been rolling out our program. While folks have seen the two dispensaries, we've issued 300 licenses. We've also drafted regulations built up in agency and been running across the state educating folks about these opportunities that are coming. And so, yes, we need more licenses. Yes, we need to roll out more dispensaries. I truly believe as much as this coordinated effort has to happen, as much as we have to keep seizing, as much as we have to go after landlords, we also need to create and open more regulated shops. And I want to just point out, you all will see, and we've talked about this previously, a verification tool, a big sticker on the front of those legal shops that lets you know that this business is properly licensed by the state and is selling products that have gone through our supply chain, including our testing and other regulatory requirements. So we know that by opening more shops, we'll also help tamper down this illicit activity. Let me be clear, every state that has legalized has had some form of proliferation. Because this is New York City, it's particularly bad because this is the city, this is the center of the world. And so that is a thing that's going to happen at the same time as we continue to roll out this market, as well as taking these necessary enforcement actions. And that's the kind of recipe that we need in order to really deter consumers from going to illicit markets and to this illicit shops and to make sure these business operators don't want to open up anymore. So I think you touched upon some of the considerations, I think I touched upon them earlier. Geography is one, because they impact on the licensed businesses, sales to minor, if we know of adulterated products, the way in which they respond to our letter. So all those are considerations, as we lawyers would say, a totality of the circumstances test. We take all of that into account, and then we make priority decisions. I wonder if the corporation council can tell us the locations of the places that you serve with notices. And were they actually closed down? Can they reopen once they've gotten this notice of nuisance? No, I cannot give you those locations. What we've done in this nuisance abatement is that the law does not allow you to do an ex-party action. So what we've done is we've served the papers, we've asked the court to give us a specific date. And when we receive that date, we are serving the documents and asking that the owners, or whomever gets the papers served on them, that they come to court and that they're heard. So they're open right now and doing business? Yes. So the purpose of this was to do what? The purpose of the nuisance abatement is to serve them. They have to be served with notice. And how long will it take before you can actually bring them to court? I do not know the exact date we can provide you with that. The court has served, when we filed the papers today, we have not yet been given a court date. And isn't it like the landlords of the properties where the stores are that are being served? The people in the stores who are selling the contraband are being served. For the mayor, when you were a police officer, did you make any arrests for conduct that's now legal and do you regret that? The same question for the district attorney, when you were a prosecutor, when you were a law prosecutor, did you prosecute anyone for conduct that's now legal and how do you feel about that? No, no, I don't recall making any marijuana arrests. And what was happening during that time, which was really suspect. In fact, I was extremely vociferous about addressing. We were stopping young people, we were telling them to empty their pockets. And once they took the marijuana out of their pockets, it was in public view that escalated to an arrest. So while it was in their pockets, it was treated differently. I just didn't believe that. I thought it was targeting young people and I thought it was unacceptable. And as a police officer, I was extremely clear that I thought this was a violation and it was the abuse of how we should have been carrying out our laws. No, I would never put myself in a position to tell them to take the marijuana out of their pockets. That's not a part of my practice. So the New York State Attorney General's office, we certainly didn't do that type of prosecution. When I was in the Southern District of New York, these type of prosecutions are not ones that the office was doing. What I did do and work on, which we're looking at, is really following the money upstream. So a money laundering case of people who were wholesale business owners who were laundering it for a violent operation. And we see that blueprint, we're employing that kind of strategy, following the money, following the contraband in our gun practice and support our other violent crime enforcement in the DA's office. Okay, Danny, you have a last comment. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, you just mentioned that some of this illegal campus could be laced with fentanyl. Do you know, and I know this is kind of a follow up, do you know of any specific example of that being the case? No, we'll give you, we'll find out. I'm going to have the police department based on their testing, the items they tested. Let's just see if we have a list of what the items are laced with, if at all. When was the last time? It was cannabis. I just passed by the places you cop from. I don't go inside and purchase myself. Let's do a few off topic. Okay, we're going to spare you, unless your off topic is for the DA or anyone else that's here. We're going to spare you having to go through. Okay, one foot of DA. Then end up with eviction proceeding would be precluded from getting the cannabis license and then the off topic. Mark Pomerant portrays it as altruism for exposing your decision or indecision about going forward with a drug prosecution. Was that the righteous course for him to take and is your office considering after your letter to Simon to choose from taking an action against you? So I defer to our state regulator in terms of that. I do think he hinted at an answer, said compliance now is something that they're taking into consideration. And I think that makes sense, but certainly defer to them. On your second question, let me start by saying I take my ethical obligations very seriously. We have an active ongoing investigation, so I'm constrained from what I can say. I'm not going to say anything that could potentially compromise or jeopardize that investigation. But here's what I can say. For more than 20 years now, I've worked on hard, challenging, white collar matters. I did that in the Southern District of New York. I did that at New York State Attorney General's office. I've prosecuted a sitting district attorney, the leader of our New York State legislature, a mayor, and an FBI agent. I bring hard cases when they are ready. Last year when I took office, I did an exhaustive review of a matter put before me and came to the same conclusion that multiple senior prosecutors in my office independently came to. And that was that Mark Pomerance's case simply was not ready. So I said to my team, let's keep working. And while Mr. Pomerance quit a year ago, apparently to write a book, our excellent team continued the work on the case. I want to specifically respond to Mr. Pomerance's criticism of our team. It is appalling that he insulted the skill and professionalism of our prosecutors. We have the most outstanding lawyers in the country working every day in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to keep the city safe from the streets to the suites. We will continue to do the work of this office without distraction or disturbance. This is the Manhattan District Attorney's office. I'm honored to lead it and I will continue to do so, focus on that which matters, the evidence and the law. If you feel this book has hurt your investigation. I'll do one more on this. If you were concerned about this book possibly hurt your investigation. I'll do one more on this and this may answer your second question which I may not have gotten to. Notwithstanding our request for an advance copy of the book, which is certainly standard practice at the Federal Department of Justice to get that type of review. We as an office and I was not granted an advance copy. So I haven't read the book. I don't know what's in it, but I continue to be concerned that it could jeopardize or undermine our ongoing investigation. Just showed your street credibility from the streets to the suite. Marsha. How you doing? Quite well. So your office has prepared a budget memo that indicates that the state budget has numerous hundreds of millions, but if not billions of dollars of unfunded mandates, everything from the MTA to charter schools to migrants. If you can't get the legislature to roll back some of these unfunded mandates, will you have to cut through massive cuts to services and what will be affecting? The had a conversation with the executive chamber this morning to go through the budget. There's some good items in the budget, but the fiscal aspects are concerning to us. And I believe that those of you who have covered this administration, you would somewhat agree that fiscal prudence is with the hallmark of this administration. We did a peg, not once, but twice. We've made some tough choices around how we use taxpayers' dollars. Some people point to the fact that we have an $8 billion rainy day fund, but we have to keep in account. We have union contracts to settle. We have a real issue with our healthcare stabilization fund. There's some real issues. We made some smart, tough decisions. And we balanced the budget, we turned it over to the city council. And there's a potentiality that we will have to find for a billion dollars more. And so where would that leave us? And we shared those concerns, and we're going to continue to speak with the governor and her team. We just believe that New York City, we have really done our share of being physically responsible and ensure that we take on the surprise additive that we have to endure. But that $4 billion, where will it leave you? What will you have to cut if you have $4 billion in unanticipated costs? We are looking deeply, and every New Yorker would feel the pain of that. Last month, how are you? You. Last month you said that the migrant crisis would cost the city $2 billion. But yesterday you said that it would cost $4 billion. So I'm wondering what changed with that estimate, and then also separately. What do you say to critics that have accused you of aiding and abetting migrants who want to illegally cross into Canada? Okay, I didn't say for a billion, 1.4 billion this fiscal year, 2.8 the next. Those are the numbers, 1.4 this, 2.8 the next. And those critics, New York, 8.5 million people, 35 million opinions. So those critics who say we are aiding and abetting, I don't know where they get that from. We are not telling anyone to go to any country or state. People who arrived here and already had other destinations in mind were basically compelled to come to New York. And when they're part of our intake process and we speak with people and they say the desire is to go somewhere else, there's a host of partnerships from the Catholic Charities to others that have been coordinating with people to get to their final destination. So there's no coordinated effort, we don't have a website, we don't have a recruitment campaign. We're not telling people, go to another country. What we will do, we're going to have a destabilization or what I should say is a decompression strategy. This is a statewide issue and we've called on the governor and others, as we called on the country. This is a national problem and there should be a decompression strategy at the border. And we're going to figure out a decompression strategy for our city. The two figures that you just mentioned does add up to $4 billion now, so what went into it? Right, but I was never an expert in math, as you know. You've been to the shelters, you've selected the terminal, what is the city, what is the pridding at the bulk of the city's costs? And again, why is it $4 billion? Comptroller Lander said it's been three years at the cost of the city $3 billion, so what's going to the city? We were constantly stayed into everyone who asked, the targets were moving. We were trying to get the final numbers, and the reason we did that is so we won't be here. And we would have given you $300 million last year, and then we tell you $1.4 million didn't argue with, well, why did you say $300 million, that's what we kept saying. We need to look at these numbers, people are still coming in, we're still getting heavy influx. Those numbers may grow also, so we know that this is a moving target, there's a lot of uncertainty. And so when a job from the budget office was able to come up with some good numbers that we can turn over, we did just that. We were unclear of the exact numbers because it kept moving. And so now we had a place where we're comfortable of saying $1.4 billion. It also spoke about how the governor's proposal for migrants only would cover about 29% of shelter costs. We're frustrated with the state, but they still haven't spent as much as you would like on this micro crisis here in the city. And the second part of this question, you know how Albany works. Who are you planning to meet with next week for 10 Cup Day to sort of help negotiate some of these unfunded mandates? The plan was based on the budget was like this 30%, 30%, 30% split. Where we would pick up 30, the state picks up 30, and the feds picks up 30. The Hawkeying-Jeffreys is not the majority leader, he's the minority leader. If we look at the history of a Republican-controlled Congress who they don't want to do comprehensive immigration reform, if we're counting on their 30% split, that just doesn't add up. So we need to make sure that we have a full proof plan to address this national issue. And we don't see the help coming from a Republican-controlled Congress. Senator Schumer and Congressman Jeffery was able to get the 800 plus in the omnibus bill. We don't know if we're going to get more help from a Republican-controlled Congress. Yeah, and then the second part of that question, just next week when you're in Albany, who are you planning to meet with, how are you going to negotiate that? We have been having ongoing conversations with a lot of the electives up there. There's some great allies up there that believe in common sense budgeting. And we have been having great conversations. I'm going to sit down and continue to talk with the leaders in both chambers. Leader Andrew Stewart-Cousin in the Senate and leader Carl Haley in the Assembly. And to show their members who represent New York, show them this is going to impact the basic services in your districts. And that is crucial to show we're in this together. And those who represent the city, they must be aware of that. And I'm troubled that out of the $500 million that we're supposed to pay, not one year. The state is going to do $300 million one time. We are told to pay a half a billion dollars forever. No other municipality in the state has been asked to do anywhere near that, only New York City. A big decision coming up that expires this summer. James Dolan has been making a lot of provocative moves. I wonder how you envision this permitting process going. Would you see some sort of way to incentivize Mr. Dolan to move Madison Square Garden? I'm not sure what provocative moves he has been doing. Things that happen within Madison Square Garden and how they carry out their procedures is not going to get in the way of negotiating the best deal for the city. Madison Square Garden is a real win for us. It is very much in our DNC plan. It was clear that being able to have an arena that size is allowing us to do some great things. We have our sports teams here, events here. We're going to factor in the benefit of the city in our decision. Not of what he's doing and how he runs his mannerisms inside the garden. That doesn't play into it at all. Do you like where it is now? Madison Square Garden, yes, yes, yes I do. I can't quite understand why it's called Square. Maybe we can rename it to Madison Round Garden, but I think it's a great location. 24th Street, Penn Station, people don't have to drive in. They could use public transportation. You have the seven line, the eight line, it's just a good place for it to be. I'm happy with it being there. What's the latest on the officer we shot and broken over the weekend? And has the NYPD released his name yet? If not, I'm wondering why. Not of my knowledge and the releasing of the name, the police commissioner. You can communicate and she'll make that determination. We're still in, we're prayerful. We're hoping that he's able to pull through the family's advice or whatever medical decision they want to make, but we're hopeful. This was a cowardly act where I just want to take my hat off to those officers who worked around the clock, did not sleep, great police and detective work, and we were able to apprehend this individual with extensive criminal record, recidivism, you get a day or two questions, interesting. Follow up on, I mean, you do have a lever at your disposal to in exchange for letting them continue to operate and make a ton of money there. Yes, we're going to be a hard negotiator for the people of the city to get the best deal for the people of the city. And no way am I saying that we're not going to do that. Any use of city resources, we're going to be a hard negotiator. But it's not going to be based on the win-loss record of the New York Knicks. It's going to be based on what's the best deal for the city. Union today, what was this your first time, first of all? Yes. Conversations with the White House about migrant funding? Every time I see the White House, I talk about migrant funding. We're going to continue to press that this is a national issue and we must come up with a national solution. Is your criticism of Colorado Governor Polis critical, why or why not? And have you reached out to Canadian officials to coordinate this issue? Okay, so we should be clear because I don't want it to be misprinted. We are not coordinating with anyone to go to Canada. We're not doing that. There's no role that the city is playing to tell migrants to go to Canada. Part of our intake process is to speak with people to find out their needs, find out to do an evaluation. If their determination, as I stated over and over again in every press that we sent out, the reticatin process is part of our process of how we're going to assist migrants. Migrants were forced to come to New York. Many of them did not want to come to New York. The substantial number stayed here, but many did not want to come here. They wanted to go somewhere else. They were not given that option. And so, unlike other municipalities, we are speaking to people, interacting with them, and say, what are your needs? Hey, we have families somewhere else. That's where we want to go. We want to help them connect with their family members. Thank you. Do you have any more information about the coffer shot in the 47? No, I'm going to read out these questions. Do you support federal marijuana legalization? Yes.