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About Nix and that pot bust
I was curious about the bold sale of unlicensed pot out of the former Honeycomb Hive on Pine Avenue in Niagara Falls.
As the State Office of Cannabis Management closed in and changed the locks Demetreus Nix was across the street at McDonald’s ordering chicken nuggets and live-streaming an announcement about “Orange Dash,” a marijuana delivery service. (Nix has four orange trucks, all old, a bit beat up but registered, insured and on the road.)
By Nix’s way of thinking, selling unlicensed pot is now a civil issue, not a criminal one. Possessing 3 ounces or less for personal use is legal.
Niagara Falls Police not only know this but openly laugh about it, going along to get along with state raids but knowing the battle is hopeless.
For someone like Nix, it’s easy. For 18 months, since the last time the same address got busted, he tried to rent it out. No one would bite, in Nix’s mind because Niagara Falls city bureaucracy, from the building inspectors to code enforcement make it an unwelcome place to do business unless you are connected to a corrupt administration.
The option is to do it as happened at Honeycomb Hive, open to sell marijuana with no license, knowing eventually, it will be shut down but gambling it will be a few months. It is a quick way to make $20,000 and, even if they fine the seller $5,000 walk away with 15K free and clear.
Sure they can change the locks and seize the property but in 6 months, Nix will have it back and someone can do the same thing again because the traditional businesses in Little Italy are never coming back.
What’s more is he was allegedly selling 5 grams for $20. The other illegal pot shops around town, on Pine Avenue and elsewhere, as well as houses selling it, are offering 3.5 grams for $60. Honeycomb Hive was a bargain.
Think about Rapper’s First Choice, busted at the same time as Honeycomb Hive. The raid seized $100,000 in cash and pounds of cannabis on Pine Avenue. Rapper’s First Choice not only has other operations in Niagara Falls but in Buffalo and Rochester as well. Each shop has 3 or 4 employees being paid $1,500 a week, off the books. Think about how much margin it takes on $60 bags to justify $6,000 a week in salaries. Now multiply it times 10 or 20 storefronts. That’s the sort of operation that should be targeted, not one happy dude trying to make his way hustling 50 for 20 and some wings on the side.
There’s a moral justification as well. Shortly after Nix returned home from prison just more than a decade ago, he got busted for 1.5 ounces of weed and sent back to jail for 18 months.
When legalization was announced that became an acceptable amount. The state, at the time of legalization, also said people of color with history, and criminal pot convictions, would get first dibs on licenses to sell. Only there was no outreach and no support for people like Nix. It left them to learn things on their own and cut out the state regulations, taxes and bureaucracy.
As long as it is a civil penalty, not a criminal one, and the state and federal government don’t get aggressive on the tax issues, there is too much money being made for the illegal pot shops to go away. When one is shut down, it’s almost certain another will open.
Let’s face it. The Como is never going to reopen. Michael’s probably isn’t either. Those days are gone. Someone, anyone, doing business on Pine Avenue is an improvement.
