{"id":21977,"date":"2024-05-09T00:34:51","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T04:34:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multi.nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/?p=21977"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:40:31","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T14:40:31","slug":"city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"City Launches Cannabis Shop Inspections, Addresses Arsenic Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Shenal Tissera<\/a><\/p>\n

The mayor launched citywide operations to shut down unlicensed cannabis shops, and tried to quell fears after a Manhattan woman living in a NYCHA housing complex was hospitalized for arsenic poisoning at his regularly scheduled press conference at City Hall on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Dubbed \u201cOperation Padlock to Protect,\u201d\u00a0the city adopted an\u00a0emergency rule<\/a>\u00a0that allows officials to inspect businesses selling illegal cannabis products.<\/p>\n

\n
Shops selling cannabis with no proper registration, license or permit issued pursuant to the New York State Cannabis Law will be padlocked and fined. Twenty shops were investigated and padlocked after the first day of the illegal cannabis crackdown.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

During the press meeting, the mayor conducted a live video conference with New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda, who was in the middle of a raid on a store selling cannabis products illegally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese smoke shops have really become a quality of life issue in our city and every town hall we attend, this issue comes up over and over again,\u201d said Adams. \u201cOur message is clear: We want to close them down, and if you\u2019re out there, we have a lock with your name on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the mayor and his deputies also addressed inquiries into\u00a0several NYCHA residents in Manhattan\u2019s Jacob Riis Houses becoming ill with symptoms of arsenic poisoning<\/a>, one of whom was hospitalized and found to have toxic levels of arsenic in her system in March.<\/p>\n

Residents across NYCHA housing complexes have raised concerns about living conditions in their homes for years.\u00a0An\u00a0investigation<\/a>\u00a0by the Justice Department found that NYCHA lied to government agencies regarding lead paint and other hazards which prompted the appointment of a federal monitor in 2019 to oversee implementation of reforms.<\/p>\n

There was a\u00a0similar arsenic scare<\/a>\u00a0in the same housing complex\u00a0in 2022. A water test that year\u00a0indicated unsafe levels of arsenic present<\/a>, which took two weeks for the city to reveal to the residents, but was then negated by a\u00a0second test<\/a>\u00a0one week later, on September 9. Josefa Bonet, 74, a resident in\u00a0the Riis\u00a0complex,\u00a0died on October 1<\/a>, 2022, with four times the upper limit of normal arsenic levels in her system.<\/p>\n

The federal monitor opened an investigation into the 2022 findings, but the results have not been revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no arsenic in the water. There has never been in the city’s housing supply,\u201d said Deputy Mayor of Housing, Economic Development and Workforce Maria Torres-Springer. \u201cMore than 500 water test samples have been taken from roof tanks to inside apartments to other locations, though that testing has shown conclusively no water quality concerns at Riis Houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The 2022 example is what happens when you rely on a single test versus multiple tests, and it turned out to be a false positive,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
The DEP has done multiple tests in the area, most recently in April 2024,<\/strong>\u00a0which were all negative, Joshi said.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After the press conference, Adams went to the Riis Houses and drank the tap water in a\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0posted to X. However, the mayor did not inform the press in advance and it is unclear where exactly the water he drank originated from.<\/p>\n

The mayor also addressed the\u00a0personal data breach<\/a>\u00a0that affected more than a million current and former New York City public school students.<\/p>\n

No financial data or social security numbers were revealed\u00a0and the Department of Education is offering two years of free credit and identity monitoring services to any individual affected by the hack, according to Chief of Staff Camille Jospeh Varlack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing that former mayor said to me\u2026\u2019Your problem is not so much terrorism but cybersecurity,\u2019\u201d said Adams. \u201dIt\u2019s a global problem and we are being inundated every day by outside influences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Shenal Tissera The mayor launched citywide operations to shut down unlicensed cannabis shops, and tried to quell fears after a Manhattan woman living in a NYCHA housing complex was hospitalized for arsenic poisoning at his regularly scheduled press conference at City Hall on Tuesday. Dubbed \u201cOperation Padlock to Protect,\u201d\u00a0the city adopted an\u00a0emergency rule\u00a0that allows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5904,"featured_media":21978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,2717],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-restaurants-features","category-bk-news"],"yoast_head":"\nCity Launches Cannabis Shop Inspections, Addresses Arsenic Concerns - Brooklyn News and Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"City Launches Cannabis Shop Inspections, Addresses Arsenic Concerns\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By: Shenal Tissera The mayor launched citywide operations to shut down unlicensed cannabis shops, and tried to quell fears after a Manhattan woman living in a NYCHA housing complex was hospitalized for arsenic poisoning at his regularly scheduled press conference at City Hall on Tuesday. Dubbed \u201cOperation Padlock to Protect,\u201d\u00a0the city adopted an\u00a0emergency rule\u00a0that allows […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Brooklyn News and Events\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-09T04:34:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-02-13T14:40:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/05\/ericadams5-7-24.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brooklyn Buzz News Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brooklyn Buzz News Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/\",\"name\":\"City Launches Cannabis Shop Inspections, Addresses Arsenic Concerns - Brooklyn News and Events\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/05\/ericadams5-7-24.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-09T04:34:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-13T14:40:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/#\/schema\/person\/da9080898e2ce6a46f024597da8da166\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/05\/ericadams5-7-24.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/05\/ericadams5-7-24.jpg\",\"width\":960,\"height\":640,\"caption\":\"Eric Adams at the weekly media press conference at City Hall with Sheena Wright (L) and Ingrid Lewis-Martin (R).Photo: Shenal Tissera\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"City Launches Cannabis Shop Inspections, Addresses Arsenic Concerns\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/\",\"name\":\"Brooklyn News and Events\",\"description\":\"For What's Buzzin' in Brooklyn\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/#\/schema\/person\/da9080898e2ce6a46f024597da8da166\",\"name\":\"Brooklyn Buzz News Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5f050eee775dccede49d98fa5b10566df3cef9bf4eff092dd6f1334e0565eda?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5f050eee775dccede49d98fa5b10566df3cef9bf4eff092dd6f1334e0565eda?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brooklyn Buzz News Staff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/author\/omgbrooklynbuzz\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"City Launches Cannabis Shop Inspections, Addresses Arsenic Concerns - Brooklyn News and Events","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"City Launches Cannabis Shop Inspections, Addresses Arsenic Concerns","og_description":"By: Shenal Tissera The mayor launched citywide operations to shut down unlicensed cannabis shops, and tried to quell fears after a Manhattan woman living in a NYCHA housing complex was hospitalized for arsenic poisoning at his regularly scheduled press conference at City Hall on Tuesday. Dubbed \u201cOperation Padlock to Protect,\u201d\u00a0the city adopted an\u00a0emergency rule\u00a0that allows […]","og_url":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/","og_site_name":"Brooklyn News and Events","article_published_time":"2024-05-09T04:34:51+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-02-13T14:40:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/05\/ericadams5-7-24.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Brooklyn Buzz News Staff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brooklyn Buzz News Staff","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/","url":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/","name":"City Launches Cannabis Shop Inspections, Addresses Arsenic Concerns - Brooklyn News and Events","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/05\/ericadams5-7-24.jpg","datePublished":"2024-05-09T04:34:51+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-13T14:40:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/#\/schema\/person\/da9080898e2ce6a46f024597da8da166"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/05\/ericadams5-7-24.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2024\/05\/ericadams5-7-24.jpg","width":960,"height":640,"caption":"Eric Adams at the weekly media press conference at City Hall with Sheena Wright (L) and Ingrid Lewis-Martin (R).Photo: Shenal Tissera"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/city-launches-cannabis-shop-inspections-addresses-arsenic-concerns\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"City Launches Cannabis Shop Inspections, Addresses Arsenic Concerns"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/","name":"Brooklyn News and Events","description":"For What's Buzzin' in Brooklyn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/#\/schema\/person\/da9080898e2ce6a46f024597da8da166","name":"Brooklyn Buzz News Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5f050eee775dccede49d98fa5b10566df3cef9bf4eff092dd6f1334e0565eda?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5f050eee775dccede49d98fa5b10566df3cef9bf4eff092dd6f1334e0565eda?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Brooklyn Buzz News Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/author\/omgbrooklynbuzz\/"}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}