Bid to ax illegal pot biz
Gov offers get-tough bill as shops spread in city
ALBANY — Gov. Hochul has a plan to crack down on illegal pot shops and close an enforcement loophole in New York’s cannabis laws.
A bill unveiled by the governor Wednesday would increase civil and tax penalties for unlicensed dispensaries and stores selling marijuana in the Empire State.
The measure comes as lawmakers have been grappling with a New York City surge in unlicensed weed shops since recreational pot became legal in 2021.
The legislation would boost state agencies’ power to impose penalties and shut down illicit pot shops.
“The continued existence of illegal dispensaries is unacceptable, and we need additional enforcement tools to protect New Yorkers from dangerous products and support our equity initiatives,” Hochul said in a statement.
Under current law, stores and businesses offering up weed without a license can be hit with only a Criminal Court summons and small fines.
Authorities’ inability to shut down many of the unlicensed shops has frustrated Mayor Adams and other officials.
Last month, he and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg put illegal cannabis shops on notice that they will face eviction if they continue to break the law. They said prosecutors would use a decades-old public nuisance law to boot businesses selling pot without a license.
Only a handful of legal dispensaries have opened across the state as New York’s retail program has prioritized licenses for people who were prosecuted under past drug laws.
To sell weed legally, pot-trepreneurs must acquire licenses from the state and get approval for a location.
The Big Apple’s first legal recreational pot shop opened in December, with just three more licensed stores up and running since then.
The slow rollout has led to a proliferation of illegal pot sellers, some of which have been caught marketing and selling to kids, prompting calls to revamp state law to increase fines and penalties.
Hochul’s proposal aims to do just that. The bill sent to the Legislature amends the tax law and the cannabis law to enable the Office of Cannabis Management, the Taxation and Finance Department and local law enforcement to crack down on unlicensed storefront dispensaries.
The legislation would restructure current illicit cannabis penalties to give Taxation and Finance peace officers enforcement authority and would impose new penalties for retailers.
It also expands the Office of Cannabis Management’s authority to seize illicit product, establishes summary procedures for officials to shut down unlicensed businesses and would “create a framework for more effective cross-agency enforcement effort,” according to the governor’s office.
Scofflaws could face fines of $200,000 for illicit cannabis plants or products, and the measure would allow the Office of Cannabis Management to fine businesses $10,000 a day for selling weed without a license.
The legislation does not impose any new penalties for personal cannabis possession.
“The success of New York’s historic equity-based approach to the cannabis industry depends on upholding our cannabis laws,” said Chris Alexander, head of the Office of Cannabis Management. “Entrepreneurs looking to participate in our legal cannabis industry ... are being economically harmed by bad actors filling their storefronts with products that are questionable, unregulated and potentially dangerous.”