NYC’s disgusting pot stench is keeping tourists away

 It’s not just prissy European tennis players who can’t stand it. Every single person who visits New York City is disgusted by our unofficial new scent: marijuana.

And the truth is, so are most sane New Yorkers.

As The Post reported on Friday’s front page, everywhere you go in the five boroughs now reeks of pot. Expense-account restaurants such as Nobu 57 and ritzy stores like Saks Fifth Avenue have the musty whiff of a college dorm room. Puffing stoners are turning the subway’s 123 into CBD.

Even the US Open in Flushing Meadows is practically an open-air drug market.

Greek tennis player Maria Sakkari, who lost in the first round of the grand slam this week, told reporters she was distracted by something she sniffed during the match.

“It was weed,” the No. 8 player in the world said. “The smell, oh, my gosh.”

German ace Alexander Zverev spoke of blunts more bluntly: “Court 17 definitely smells like Snoop Dogg’s living room.”

Greece’s Maria Sakkari was distracted by the smell of marijuana during her round one US Open loss.

AP

These are Europeans we’re talking about! Most Americans think of that party-hardy continent as far more freewheeling and permissive than the US when it comes to sex, drugs and booze consumption. Well, we’ve shocked ‘em all this time.

Ever since NYC reopened to international tourists, put-off visitors have commented on our putrid fragrance. They’d grown accustomed to our summers of roasting garbage, but it’s the pot smoke that makes them dry heave. 

Recently, a friend visiting from London succinctly summarized his trip to me.

“The magic is gone,” he said.

His problems? As a theater industry professional, he was dismayed to find that Times Square, which was an urban Disneyland just a few years ago, has gone back to being a seedy and uncomfortable mosh pit that’s littered with drugs.

And, like everybody else, he was appalled by the constant smell of cannabis that hovers over NYC like the fog from “Scooby-Doo.”

“It’s an aroma that keeps me absent from the city,” he said.

Most New Yorkers are fed up with the inescapable stench of lawlessness, too, but refrain from saying so for fear of being shouted at by progressive friends. We are, after all, a city that hates common sense.

Kathy Hochul and Eric Adams, Gov. Cheech and Mayor Chong, did not help matters by all but cutting the ribbons for the ubiquitous illegal pot shops with their shrugs and look-the-other-way attitude. Early on Adams told High Times, “Enjoy yourself, light up, but most importantly — spend some money.” 

Mayor Harold and Gov. Kumar have changed their tune in the past several months, saying they’re cracking down on illicit activity by threatening landlords with at least $10,000 fines.

It doesn’t seem to be working, you guys. 

Another Brit who was in town last month said he “was confused by how so many of these new shops and ‘delis’ were able to so brazenly operate in full view of the public.” 

So am I! So is everybody! 

Come to the East Village, where I live. It’s easier to buy a joint than a bagel.

New York’s lefty politicians love nothing more than to be emptily self-righteous — smoke all the marijuana ya want, come all ye migrants, congestion pricing — and then take zero responsibility for the obvious consequences. 

But as our city gets higher and higher, it will descend ever lower on tourists’ lists of places to go.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/01/nycs-disgusting-pot-stench-is-keeping-tourists-away/