No ID? No problem. Undercover camera reveals ease of buying cannabis in NYC

Cannabis may be legal in New York, but you have to be 21 years of age to buy it.

It turns out, however, lots of NYC weed shops – especially unlicensed ones – may be skipping required age checks.

“I actually think a lot of parents would be surprised,” said Dr. Ryan Sultàn, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University. 

Sultàn and a team of Columbia researchers recently published a study estimating 90 percent of New York City’s unlicensed cannabis retailers fail to check IDs at the door, as required by law. The research found 48 percent of unlicensed weed shops failed to conduct any age verification at all – including at the point of sale. 

That suggests underage buyers are having little trouble finding a cannabis shop willing to ignore the rules and sell pot without asking for ID.

“Access to cannabis, the barrier just keeps dropping,” Sultàn said.

To test cannabis retailers for the study, research assistant Peter Menzi, 22, helped map more than 800 cannabis shops operating in the five boroughs. Then he visited a representative sample of them – posing as an underage customer to see if the clerks would require him to produce identification before selling him a bag of pot.Though parents might assume cannabis shops operate like liquor stores, using routine ID checks to block underage purchases, that’s not what Menzi found in the city’s patchwork of unlicensed pot shops.

“Cannabis is pretty unequivocally harmful to kids, but it is a lot easer to access cannabis than it is alcohol in the city,” Menzi said.

Although the Columbia study found wide gaps in the way unlicensed cannabis shops check IDs, it found 100 percent compliance at the state-licensed stores Menzi visited.

But even state-licensed shops don’t always follow the rules. 

When the I-Team sent a 21-year-old intern to purchase pot from KushKlub, a state-licensed cannabis store on the Lower East Side, she had no trouble buying without age verification.   Using a concealed camera, the I-Team captured video showing there was no security at the door to check ID as she walked in.  And when the intern confessed she had no identification, our concealed camera recorded as the counter clerk informed the customer she could just give a fictitious name.

“Just put ‘Liz,’ L-I-Z and then put ‘F’ for the last initial,” the intern told the clerk.  “As long as I don’t need to show you my ID.”

Liz was not her real name.  Before completing the transaction, and for good measure, the intern asked a second time.

“And you’re sure you don’t need my ID?”

The clerk proceeded to process the sale, accepting $35 and handing the customer an eighth of an ounce of cannabis.

A rep for the KushKlub, who declined to give his name, later told the I-Team his staff should have checked for ID both at the door and before the sale of any cannabis product.  But he said he would need to investigate the matter before commenting further. 

Taylor Randi Lee, a spokesperson for the New York State Office of Cannabis Management, said shutting down unlicensed stores and  preventing access to cannabis for people under 21 are top priorities for state regulators.

“We take any violations seriously and will investigate and take appropriate action against any retailer found failing to properly ID customers,” Lee said in a statement to the I-Team.

Sultàn said the purpose of the study was not to make judgments on whether cannabis legalization amounts to good policy, but rather to test whether the marketplace for weed is functioning in a way that protects teenagers and young adults, whose developing brains are more susceptible to the negative impacts of cannabis.

“The biggest concern I always have for youth with cannabis is the set-up for sort of re-wiring their brain toward a brain that is more prone to addiction in the future,” Sultàn said.