The High Light smoke shop on East 23rd Street in Manhattan was not open for business late Tuesday morning. Online search results show the shop as permanently closed.

But local elected officials say that’s not actually the case.

“While the gate is down now, it has been open. And it continues to be open,” Manhattan Assemblyman Harvey Epstein said. “It continues to operate. We had people here, people going in and out. And the problem that exists in this community, it exists across the city.”

At a news conference Tuesday, a collection of elected officials, community leaders and others said High Light is one of hundreds of businesses that continue to evade New York’s recent crackdown on unlicensed cannabis sellers. The shops sell unregulated, sometimes unsafe products - often marketed to kids.

“It is a disgrace that there’s a shop behind us, and there’s a school across the street,” longtime community activist Ayo Harrington said.

“These illicit stores undermine the legal cannabis market,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler said. "And we must continue to take the steps necessary to expedite their closure.”

Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have in recent weeks touted great progress in curbing illegal shops.

Not only has a city task force led by the sheriff’s office padlocked more than 900 stores, the mayor said Tuesday, but authorities have also made several busts of warehouses they say supply illegal shops.

“When you have money like that, you‘re going to bring in an organized element. And I’ve always felt that way,” Adams said during his weekly question-and-answer session with reporters. “And so we are really looking at: How do we go to the supplier? And that is the shift we’re doing right now.”

But those at Tuesday’s news conference say the issue persists.

“The problem is we have thousands of shops,” Epstein said. “And what the mayor said, before we passed the budget, was he would be able to - with the power that we gave him - be able to close the shops down. And unfortunately, shops like this remain open. So we really need to hear what it takes to be able to shut it down.”

Meanwhile, in a bid to increase transparency, the City Council has proposed a bill that would require the Adams administration to publicly post data on its cannabis enforcement efforts.