A candy-colored “Exotic Clouds” sign that once beckoned customers into a smoke shop at Stanton and Ludlow streets now hangs over a darkened storefront with windows covered in graffiti. Blocks away, on Allen Street, the gate is down on another shuttered shop, this one with an awning emblazoned with “Social Club,” written in understated cursive.

All around the Lower East Side, tucked between hip restaurants, bars and clothing boutiques, are the remnants of bodegas, lounges and makeshift dispensaries closed by the city in recent months, part of a crackdown on alleged illegal weed stores. Officials have made 5,000 inspections and closed more than 1,100 businesses citywide on charges of selling marijuana without a license.

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