State cannabis agency talks expanded enforcement in Queens
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The line outside of Good Grades, the first legal dispensary in Queens earlier this year. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
By Ryan Schwach
Included in this year’s state budget were more powers for the State Office of Cannabis Management to rein in illegal smoke shops and other pot business, which were discussed with Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and the Queens Borough Board on Tuesday.
OCM’s Pascale Bernard laid out the agency's new powers – which mainly include new jurisdiction over unlicensed cannabis businesses, not just those that are licensed – in a presentation, and answered questions from Queens community board district managers and Richards himself.
The borough president said he was supportive of the expanded powers, after previously expressing concern that illegal shops in Queens would only hurt the shops that have obtained the proper licensure and are operating within the legal market.
“Legislation is definitely a step in the right direction, certainly,” Richards said.
In recent months, illegal cannabis dispensaries and smoke shops have popped up on city streets in all five boroughs, forcing officials and law enforcement to combat the growing illicit market.
District attorneys, the NYPD and other enforcement agencies have tried different methods of enforcement, like attacking the business with civil penalties rather than criminal. But arrests have also been part of the enforcement tactics.
These new powers, which were granted to OCM, the Department of Taxation and Finance and the state attorney general, are the latest attempt to crack down on the growing market.
According to Bernard, the new powers allow “OCM to take actions against businesses selling cannabis without the required license, including so called sticker shops and other similarly unlicensed businesses selling cannabis.”
“It bolsters OCM’s authority to conduct regulatory inspections on all businesses selling and giving away cannabis,” she said.
The new powers also allow OCM to assess civil penalties and fines against unlicensed pot sellers, and makes the act of selling without a license a Class A misdemeanor. It also gives them the ability to inspect businesses, and issue court orders to businesses that decline them.
“We do plan to use these new powers,” said Bernard. “We don't have new powers for nothing.”
The presentation on Monday was part of an effort by OCM to communicate their new enforcement capabilities.
“We are aggressively communicating to people our new enforcement powers, and this is part of that,” said Bernard. “Making sure that we're talking to the community, talking to elected officials.”
The crackdown on the illegal shops has led to more summonses and arrests for possession and sale of marijuana.
According to NYPD data, 137 people were arrested for either sale or possession of cannabis in the first quarter of 2023, which is the most arrests in a single quarter since marijuana’s legalization, and is the third highest of any quarter dating back to the first quarter of 2020.
In 2022, 177 people were arrested in total.
Over-policing issues in marijuana enforcement prior to legalization is something electeds, like Richards, want to keep away from.
“I remember I think we had one of these meetings very early on, when legalization just happened, and it's good to see,” said Richards on Monday. “It's not that I want to see people put in jail over this. One of the things we wanted to do is to ensure that we would not criminalize folks over cannabis, but the illicit businesses hurt the businesses who are legal and the folks who we fought to legalize cannabis for in the first place.”
Bernard said that concern is not exclusive to Richards.
“That was a concern of many in the state legislature, and we are really looking at the most egregious illicit sellers,” she said. “Illicit sales do a couple of things. First and foremost, they endanger the public, because we don't know what is in this cannabis.”
In a separate statement, Richards said that the state must continue to keep the illegal sellers accountable, and that these new enforcement powers are “common sense” measures.
“As our licensed cannabis economy continues to grow across the state, an issue I have worked adamantly on for years, we need to hold those who operate unlicensed shops accountable — especially those locations that market or otherwise sell to minors,” said Richards. “The NYS Office of Cannabis Management’s new enforcement initiatives, along with the empowerment of New York State Attorney General Letitia James’ office to take expanded legal action, are commonsense measures to both ensure the success of the licensed cannabis industry and the safety of all those who consume cannabis products.”
