New York lawmakers who championed the 2021 law legalizing the sale of marijuana– which failed to include tough enforcement measures to discourage illicit peddling — fumed Monday that their districts are now choking on unlicensed shops.
During a legislative hearing on the legal cannabis industry Monday, Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal — whose district runs from Greenwich Village to the Upper West side — rattled off the names and addresses of nearly a dozen illicit pot shops on his turf and complaining that there was little that was being done about them.
“What are we going to do about it?” he complained at the hearing. “As much as this undermines the legal market, this is a public health issue, particularly for young people.”
Other supporters of the 2021 law also griped about the proliferation of gray market pot stores which operate in nearly every borough in plane sight. Sen. Liz Krueger, a chief author of the cannabis law, expressed frustration that in her district on the Upper East Side there are some blocks with more than two unlicensed pot shops.
“What do we need to do? Because clearly whatever we did isn’t really working,” Krueger told OCM officials. “Maybe it does require legislative action as opposed to just regulatory action.”
But opponents of marijuana legalization said pro-pot lawmakers can’t complain because they are the ones who failed to address enforcement up front when they approved the law three years ago.
“Democratic socialist lawmmakers have only themselves to blame. They dropped the ball 100 percent when they didn’t deal with enforcement when they approved the law,” said Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo (R-Staten Island).
“What did they think was going to happen? They didn’t want to deal with enforcement. They don’t want to put people in jail,” added Pirozzolo.
Instead, Pirozzolo said, Democrats gave convicted pot dealers first dibs on obtaining cannabis licenses.
One of the fixes Hoylman-Sigal called for was a faster way to close down unlicensed shops.
“Does it not deserve a more expedited process for addressing the illegal shops,” said Hoylman.
The state’s chief regulator for cannabis admitted enforcement is a work in progress.
“I absolutely agree, senator…. We want them closed as bad as you. We would love a more efficient [way of doing enforcement],” said Chris Alexander, executive director of the state Office of Cannabis Management.
He noted that illegally selling to a minor remains a felony offense.
Krueger, meanwhile, noted that Gov. Kathy Hochul and lawmakers approved a law earlier this year boosting fines for up to $20,000 a day to crack down on an estimated 1,500 unlicensed pot shops in New York City.
Currently, there are only 26 licensed cannabis shops across the state — 11 of which are in New York City.
Krueger, who acknowledged unintended consequences, said the law may need to be fine-tuned again.
“I understand you’re staffing up and there’s not enough of you to do the thousands of illegal stores,” Krueger said.
Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side, said a hodgepodge of city and state agencies and prosecutors are “finger pointing at each other” instead of working together to padlock unlicensed shop.
She also said she hasn’t seen the crackdown promised by Mayor Eric Adams, via the Cannabis NYC Interagency Enforcement Task Force
“Confiscation is not working, and I have not seen aggressiveness from the administration,” Brewer testified
Brewer issued a list of recommendations, including the necessity of getting the NYPD more involved in enforcement.
“There is no way out of this problem without greater involvement from the NYPD….Unlicensed cannabis stores are large scale criminal operations. Possession of more than five pounds of cannabis is a felony. Sale of more than sixteen ounces is a felony. Sale to a minor is a felony,” the councilwoman said.
She also suggested amending the law to make it easier for city district attorneys to bring cases, while adding that the city Health Department should take a more active role in shuttering shops.
City Sheriff Anthony Miranda also urged state legislators to revise the law to give the sheriff’s office more enforcement authority to crack down on illegal shops. Under current law, it’s the Office of Cannabis Management and state Tax Department that have most authority to inspect unlicensed smoke shops, he said.
He said as of last month, the sheriff’s office and other city officials had conducted 1,175 inspections of suspected unlicensed pot shops and levied $36 million in civil fines.