New York’s increasing efforts to crack down on unlicensed cannabis shops has seen two Empire Cannabis Club locations raided.
One of the city’s largest and highest profile unlicensed cannabis businesses, Empire, was raided on Tuesday according to a number of news reports.
Empire’s stores in Chelsea and the Lower East side were raided, seeing owners Lenore and Jonathan Elfand briefly detained, with Lenore now facing obstruction charges after hitting out at authorities for entering without a warrant.
Despite the raids, which saw both of the store’s THC-containing products confiscated, both stores were reportedly reopened the next day.
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According to cannabis industry expert and veteran reporter Jeremy Berke, all eyes will be on what happens next with Empire, which has been one of the most outspoken voices regarding what they see as loopholes in New York’s cannabis laws.
Empire’s lawyer, Steve Zissou, told NY Cannabis Insider: “Empire didn’t get started yesterday – they’ve been involved openly, notoriously, they weren’t hiding from anybody. They would speak to anyone. I’ve called OCM many times.”
In his full analysis, which can be read here, Mr Berke predicts this case ‘will be a dogfight’.
