Hashing It Out: Legal cannabis’ public safety role still a work in progress
April 20 marked the first “4/20” since legal recreational cannabis dispensaries hit the “Big Apple.” But roughly five months since the first Manhattan location opened, licensed shops are still devoid north of 42nd Street.
Vladimir Bautista, co-founder of Latino-owned cannabis lifestyle brand Happy Munkey, says the lack of licensed recreational dispensaries uptown means Harlemites are stuck choosing between a long commute or just buying from an unlicensed seller.
“The reality is that if you are [far] away and you go on the site and there’s this…new cannabis space but [if] you [need] to drive [far], most people are not going to do that,” he said.
His company held a symposium with Community Board 9 on Columbia University’s campus to promote cannabis literacy this week. But Bautista says he’s still waiting for his Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensaries (CAURD) license to be approved. He says businesses like his will be key to rooting out unlicensed retailers.
“I believe that what happens is the market corrects itself because then the community bands together around [people they’ve known for] the years [that] now they have a license,” said Bautista. “And that helps shake out the opportunists and helps the industry find out because at the end of the day, regulators can only do so much. The authorities can only do so much. The community also needs to have people that they respect running these organizations.”
This past February, Mayor Eric Adams and Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg partnered up to crack down on unlicensed dispensaries. The D.A.’s Office sent more than 400 letters to shops around the borough warning them of potential eviction.
“Legalizing cannabis was a major step forward for equity and justice — but we’re not going to take two steps back by letting illegal smoke shops take over this emerging market,” said Adams back then.
The NYPD says it cannot stop unlicensed shops from displaying cannabis and its main tactic to curb them is through the nuisance abatement law, which allows police to label and penalize properties over alleged nuisance or illegal conduct.
“However, the nuisance abatement law does not authorize the closure of these unlicensed dispensaries until all parties have had an opportunity to present their case to the court,” said an NYPD spokesperson. “This can take weeks or months.”
But dispensaries, legal or illegal aren’t the only public safety concerns uptown faces in the wild, wild west of weed retail. Multiple shootings were reported in Harlem inside or nearby smoke shops over the past year. Earlier this month, a 36-year-old man was fatally shot inside of a store steps away from the prime intersection of 125th and Lenox. A former NYPD detective was struck by a stray bullet last October outside the same shop.
To be clear, the city is still in the early stages of rolling out these recreational dispensaries. So how do New Yorkers know if they’re purchasing licensed cannabis? Taylor Randi Lee— Public Affairs Coordinator for the NYS Office of Cannabis Management—says a list is currently on the agency’s website.
“In New York State, licensed dispensary owners must use the Display Verification Tool: a sticker issued by the New York State Office of Cannabis Management in the window of their shops near their main entrance for all cannabis consumers to see,” added Lee. “This Display Verification Tool will contain a QR code that is linked to the Office’s list of licensed adult-use cannabis dispensaries. Unlicensed and illegal dispensaries will not have access to the Display Verification Tool stickers and consumers will know that without that sticker, those dispensaries are selling untested products.”
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.
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Barkley L. Hendricks photos on view
Last week the Jack Shainman Gallery premiered “Barkley L. Hendricks: Myself When I Am Real” a retrospective of the photographs of the late artist Barkley L. Hendricks.
Best celebrated for his paintings, Hendricks, who passed in 2017, is known for having reinterpreted the visual perceptions of African Americans.
Black people had been traditionally depicted by artists of different ethnicities as either viewed from afar or as embodying certain tropes which could then be comfortably understood by those observing them. Hendricks’ full-length portraits of various people helped transform Black visual culture: he allowed everyday Black Americans to express a sense of style and to stand before viewers with a distinct assurance. In his oil paintings from the 1960s and 1970s, Black Americans are seen presenting themselves as they wanted their presence to be understood and interpreted in the world.
The Shainman Gallery in Chelsea, which is representing Hendricks’ estate, presents some of the artists’ photos in this new exhibit. Photography was another medium he often turned to—these photos allow us to see the world and period of time he lived through, and to look at what caught his attention.
These photos range from the 1960s through the 1990s, important periods in African American history. These decades saw changes brought about by the Civil Rights Movement and a resultant political and social progress on the grassroots level. Hendricks’ Shainman Gallery photos show how he witnessed the way the lives of ordinary Black people changed, and the ways that even celebrated African Americans––from Martin Luther King Jr. to 1983’s Miss America Vanessa Williams to jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong to attorney Anita Hill and to the boxer Muhammad Ali––imprinted on U.S. society.
The gallery notes in its literature for the exhibit that Hendricks has many photos he took while at a bar near where he lived in Connecticut: “A series of television screens, another recurring theme that fascinated Hendricks throughout his practice, documents vignettes of popular culture, news, and public figures such as Anita Hill and Ronald Reagan. The images serve as a record of the American media landscape and Hendricks’ own surroundings; a large number were taken at the Dutch Tavern, a local establishment in New London, Connecticut, over the years. Covering a broad range of subject matter, the series demonstrates Hendricks’ keen eye for American life during the birth of media oversaturation and the shape of visual culture in its wake.”
These photos are not solely of African Americans. They show the world African Americans lived through—where other figures, like Salvador Dali and Richard Nixon and Judy Garland also made impacts. Swirling around this larger world, Black life in America is put in context.
“Barkley L. Hendricks: Myself When I Am Real” is on view through May 26 at the Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 W. 20th Street, Manhattan, NY. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
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Nets, down 2-0, look to bounce back versus the 76ers in Brooklyn
Down 2-0, the Nets are in a must-win game tonight (Thursday) against the Philadelphia 76ers in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center in their opening round best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.
In Games 1 and 2 in Philadelphia, the Sixers, powered by this season’s Most Valuable Player finalist, center Joel Embiid, proved too much for the Nets to handle. The Nets fell 121-101 last Saturday, then 96-84 on Monday.
The Nets have no one capable of countering Embiid’s massive seven-foot, 280-pound frame. He posted 25 points in Game 1 and a commanding performance in Game 2, putting up Most Valuable Player stats of 20 points, 19 rebounds, seven assists, and three blocked shots. His one blemish was eight turnovers.
The defensive philosophy employed by the Nets in this series has been to double team Embiid for the majority of his touches. Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn employed that strategy for much of the first half of Sunday’s game, but went away from it in the second half. The Sixers then took over in the final two quarters after trailing 49-44 seeing the Nets’ offense falter.
“The only adjustment made was that the ball didn’t go in the hole for us,” Vaughn said afterwards. “We got open looks. They tried to go zone. We had enough shooting out there. The ball just didn’t go in.”
Embiid has had ample support. All-Star point guard James Harden and his emerging third-year backcourt mate Tyrese Maxey took turns being Embiid’s No. 2. Maxey was stellar on Monday, leading the Sixers with 33 points, and Harden controlled Game 1 with 23 points and 13 assists.
At the start of this season the Nets were betting favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Now they are led by Mikal Bridges, who was acquired in the February trade of Durant to the Phoenix Suns. Bridges was masterful in Game 1 with 30 points on 12-18 shooting. Forward Cam Johnson, who came with Bridges to the Nets from the Suns, had a team-high 28 points on 11-19 shooting in Game 2.
Game 3 is tonight (Thursday) at 7:30 p.m. at the Barclays Center, and Game 4 will be on Saturday in Brooklyn at 1 p.m.
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Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia set for long awaited match
Gervonta “Tank” Davis had two words for his opponent “King” Ryan Garcia.
“Get ready,” he said calmly during the “Davis vs. Garcia” episode of Showtime’s “All Access.”.
Davis, widely recognized as one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world, and the imposing Garcia are set to knuckle up this Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a lightweight bout contested at a catch weight of 136 pounds. Davis and Garcia are elite fighters in their primes and are providing a compelling match up craved by boxing fans as star welterweights Terence Crawford and Errol Spence continue to stall in solidifying what would be the most highly anticipated fight in several years.
Davis, 28, of Baltimore, Maryland, is 28-0, (26 KOs) and the WBA “Regular” lightweight champion. Garcia, 24, of Los Alamitos, California, is 23-0 (19 KOs).
“He’s gonna be surprised though, for sure,” said the five-foot-five-and-a-half-inch Davis in an interview with Fight Hub via Boxing Social, about the much taller five-foot-10 Garcia.
“His reach is not that much longer than mine, so he needs to shut the hell up. Looking back on it, he looks good against people that he’s supposed to look good against. I’ve never seen somebody that he fought or somebody that he sparred that’s come out and said he’s, like, top level.”
Davis recently saw action in the squared circle in January. He stopped Hector Luis Garcia in the eighth round in Washington, D.C. Ryan defeated Luke Campbell to win the WBC lightweight interim title in January 2021. He skipped a tune-up with Mercito Gesta this past January to focus solely on Davis. Ryan’s last fight was a knockout against Javier Fortuna last July.
“I’m here to win, and I promise you that I have heart and determination like you’ve never seen before,” Garcia said at a press conference in Los Angeles. “Tank likes to fight guys that don’t hit hard, but I hit hard. When I hit you with that left hook, you’re gonna be on the floor. Asleep. Good night.”
Garcia will be working under the watchful eye of trainer Joe Goossen for the contest with Davis. As for Davis, he will have other issues to tend to after the fight with Garcia. In February, Davis pled guilty to four traffic violations involving a hit-and-run incident in November of 2020: leaving the scene of an accident involving bodily injury, failing to notify of property damage, driving with a revoked license, and running a red light.
Davis is believed to have left the scene of an accident involving several people, including a pregnant woman. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5 and is facing up to seven years in prison.
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Knicks return to Garden to resume playoff battle with Cavs
After taking a 1-0 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers on the road in their best-of-seven NBA Eastern Conference playoff series, with a hard-fought 101-97 victory at the Rocket Mortgage Field House in Game 1 on Saturday, the Knicks were beaten decisively in Game 2 on Tuesday night by 107-90 and now return home to Madison Square Garden for Game 3 tomorrow night.(8:30 p.m.). Game 4 is onSunday afternoon (1 p.m.) at MSG.
The Knicks began Game 2 by taking an early 13-6 lead and were up 22-21 with .48.1 seconds remaining in the first quarter, but that would be the last time they had an advantage on the scoreboard. Playing with expected urgency to avoid having to go to New York down 2-0 and face the monumental challenge of needing to win four of the next five games to reach the conference semifinals, the Cavaliers, who were the league’s top-rated defensive team during the regular season, suffocated the Knicks.
The Cavaliers adroitly disrupted the Knicks’ offense by blitzing point guard Jalen Brunson, who was exceptional in Game 1, with two defenders and pressuring him full court, and prevented the Knicks from effectively executing their sets. They harassed the Knicks into missing 50 of their 79 shot attempts (36.7 percent), including 7-29 from behind the 3-point line (24.1 percent). Moreover, after the Knicks manhandled the Cavs on the glass on Saturday, out-rebounding them 51-38, Cleveland course-corrected and held a 43-36 margin in Game 2.
The Cavaliers also scored 26 points off 16 Knicks turnovers in Game 1 and had 32 on Tuesday as both teams had 18 miscues.
“I thought the biggest thing was the ball pressure,” said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau. “[Offensively], Garland got loose on us. Had a big first half. Mitchell made a number of good plays. When you look at it, we turned the ball over, so that was a big problem…The rebounding was a problem.”
Cavaliers point-guard Darius Garland dropped 26 of his game-high 32 points in the first half. His backcourt partner Donovan Mitchell, who scorched the Knicks for a game-high 38 points on Saturday, became a willing facilitator with a career-high 13 assists in Game 2, and reserve guard Caris LeVert contributed 24.
“It’s the makeup of this group, again—being who we are and where we came from,” said Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff of his squad’s resilience in evening the series. “You don’t get to 51 wins if you can’t handle some adversity and bounce back. This league is too good.”
Nevertheless, the Knicks took away home court advantage from the Cavs going into Game 3 with a spirited win in Game 1, in which All-Star forward Julius Randle scored an encouraging 19 points and 10 rebounds in 33 minutes in his first game since suffering a sprained ankle on March 29.
Forward Josh Hart provided the Knicks with invaluable intangibles off the bench, getting to 50-50 balls, menacing the Cavs out of their offensive rhythm, and putting up a game-changing 17 points, 10 boards, and a crucial 3-pointer with 1:49 remaining in the fourth quarter to give the Knicks a 95-93 lead.
Yet it was Brunson who was central to the Knicks’ victory. He overcame first-half foul trouble, playing just 9 minutes, and scored 21 of his 27 points in the second half. Cleveland had no solution to stop him, even when using multiple defenders who were all abused by the crafty shot creator, who netted a career-best 48 point against the Cavs on March 31.
Conversely, their adjustments in Game 2 stymied Brunson. He finished with 20 laborious points and shot an uncharacteristic 5-17.
“First and foremost, they played really well,” Brunson said of Cleveland. “We gotta come back Friday, stick together the next couple of days, and play well.”
The Knicks hope to get showings from RJ Barrett, who is struggling with his shot going 6-25, including 1-8 on 3-point attempts.
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