In Mamdani's New York City, Open-Air Black Markets for Meds Are Now the Norm
Progressive policy ambitions meet practical realities as Americans weigh costs and consequences.
Walk down certain blocks in New York right now and you'll see folding tables stacked with pill bottles, loose tablets, and unmarked bottles of what's supposed to be cough syrup or antibiotics. Nobody's carding anyone. Nobody's checking expiration dates.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ran on a platform to streamline the process of opening and running a business in the Big Apple. That was an admission that government red tape and regulations were an undue burden on businesses.
But Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist, which means the red tape and regulations are the point. How else can they confiscate wealth without a bureaucrat keeping track of everything you do?
Original source:
Read at TownhallHow We See It
New Republican Times Editorial Board
Walk down certain blocks in New York right now and you'll see folding tables stacked with pill bottles, loose tablets, and unmarked bottles of what's supposed to be cough syrup or antibiotics. Nobody's carding anyone. Nobody's checking expiration dates. This isn't some black-market anomaly tucked into an alley. It's happening in the open, on sidewalks, in plain view of foot traffic and, apparently, city officials who've decided not to notice.
Mamdani built his campaign on the idea that city bureaucracy was choking small businesses to death, and he wasn't wrong about that part. Permits, inspections, licensing fees, the whole maze that makes opening a bodega or a pharmacy a multi-year ordeal. But the fix was never supposed to be "let anyone sell medication off a card table with zero oversight." That's not deregulation. That's abdication. The people running legitimate pharmacies still have to deal with the DEA, the state board, the insurance paperwork and the liability insurance. Meanwhile a guy with a folding table fifty feet away is selling what could be counterfeit blood pressure medication to whoever walks up with cash.
This is what happens when the people running a city treat enforcement itself as the enemy rather than bad enforcement. There's a real difference between cutting red tape for a guy trying to open a diner and looking the other way while unregulated drugs get sold on street corners to people who have no idea what they're actually swallowing. One is pro-business. The other is just surrender dressed up as compassion.
New Yorkers deserve a government that can tell the difference between a permit reform and a public health crisis happening in real time on Roosevelt Avenue. Right now it looks like nobody in charge much cares which one they're presiding over.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.