An Office of Cannabis Management enforcement officer posts a sign after a store was raided in Manhattan for illegal pot sales on June 7, 2023.
Photo courtesy of OCM
Officials raided illegal cannabis shops in Manhattan on Wednesday — the first enforcement push since legislators expanded the power that state agencies have to punish the stores, which have become nuisances to many New Yorkers but everyday fixtures on city blocks from Brighton Beach to the Upper West Side.
The Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) and the Department of Tax and Finance confiscated illegal goods and fined seven stores in Manhattan $10,000 each — with an additional $20,000 per day fine levied if they continued selling the goods, officials said.
Under the new law, the OCM can confiscate goods and request the stores be shut down while the Department of Taxation and Finance can issue steep fines for unpaid taxes on the illegal sales, according to the governor’s office. Each fine issued Wednesday will be reviewed by an administrative judge before being final, officials said.
“New York is proud to have undertaken the most equitable legal cannabis roll-out in the nation and the State will not stand idle as unlicensed operators break the law,” said Governor Kathy Hochul, in a statement. “These enforcement actions are critical steps to protect and help those individuals who were promised a shot to start a legal business and be successful.”
Cities and towns across New York grappled with how to close the illegal shops as they expanded despite previous attempts to rein them in. Common complaints are that the shops frequently sell to minors, do not test their products, and skirt tax revenue.
In New York City alone, more than 1,500 illegal shops have open compared to just seven legal dispensaries — threatening the profitability of the nascent legal market.
In light of this, lawmakers gave the two state agencies, which typically do not have strong enforcement power, the ability…
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