Gov. Kathy Hochul tweaked state law earlier this year to increase the potential fines for unlicensed cannabis sales and bolster enforcement against shops that flout the law. But efforts to shut down these stores have been slow to yield results and are still being “fine-tuned,” state cannabis officials admitted Monday at a hearing on the adult-use market in Albany .
State senators grilled officials on what they would do to improve the process.
“As much as this undermines the legal market, this is also a public health issue, particularly for young people,” said State Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, who represents the west side of Manhattan.
He pointed to examples of smoke shops in New York City that were observed selling marijuana to high school students as well as shops that had been targeted in armed robberies.
State cannabis regulators temporarily paused the administrative law hearings in which an appointed judge can issue fines or other penalties for shops that violate the law, the news outlet The City reported last week. That’s because the state was struggling to get judges to issue the maximum fines available of $20,000 per day, Chris Alexander, executive director of the state Office of Cannabis Management, explained at Monday’s hearing.
Enforcement agents with the Office of Cannabis Management typically issue a violation after the first inspection in which they find illicit cannabis products and then pursue a hearing if there’s still evidence of foul play after a second inspection several weeks later, said Dan Haughney, the agency’s director of enforcement.
But Alexander said the judges — which are appointed as part of the state’s administrative law procedure that’s separate from the traditional court system — have so far been reluctant to infer that the vendors brought to trial had engaged in continuous sales throughout that time.
Alexander testified state regulators are pursuing changes to the process to “get the largest fines possible for the…
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