The state began cracking down on unlicensed marijuana shops in New York City Wednesday with a warning for other illegal shops in the state: You’re next.
Enforcement officers from the State Office of Cannabis Management and the Department of Taxation and Finance conducted raids on unlicensed cannabis dispensaries in New York City, seizing product and issuing notices of violation and orders to cease unlicensed activity. The raids launched an initiative aimed at wiping out cannabis sales not licensed by the state.
“These actions will be replicated across the state to end public sales of untested cannabis by unlicensed businesses,” Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said in a statement.
Gov. Hochul signed the expanded enforcement action into law as part of the recently adopted state budget. It allows the OCM to assess civil penalties with fines up to $20,000 per day and makes it a crime to sell cannabis and cannabis products without a license.
The Department of Taxation and Finance can also conduct regulatory inspections of cannabis businesses to determine whether proper taxes were paid and levy civil penalties when they haven’t. And it establishes a new tax fraud crime for businesses that “willfully” fail to collect or remit required cannabis taxes, or possess untaxed cannabis for sale.
Almost all of the recreational cannabis dispensaries operating in New York are unlicensed. Just a dozen state-licensed businesses, including three delivery services, are operational and none of them are in Western New York. Other cannabis stores operate on sovereign Native American tribal territories.
Unlicensed shops do not abide by state rules for product testing, making them unsafe for public consumption, state officials contend. They say the unlicensed shops threaten the success of licensed shops and prevent the state from collecting taxes to fund its cannabis social equity programming.
“These enforcement actions are critical steps to protect and help those…
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