SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — A month after a county court ruled that city code enforcers did not need a judge’s permission to shut down a convenience store for illegally selling cannabis and tobacco, Mayor Sharon Owens announced that the city government was shutting down seven shops around the city.
The statement did mention one address — 1001 Park St — and disclosed that city detectives had caught its shopkeepers selling illegal synthetic drugs. The statement also referred to the case that spurred the court’s decision, one in which a convenience store sold cannabis without a license and sold tobacco to children.
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The mayor’s office celebrated the Onondaga County Supreme Court’s ruling as a win for establishing a legal precedent. The ruling speeds up the process for code enforcers to shut down stores for illegal activity by allowing them to do so without a court order for the sake of public safety.
City lawyer Sue Katzoff said the legal team was “thrilled” by the closures…