Looking to clean up the mess caused by her administration’s botched rollout of legal cannabis, Gov. Kathy Hochul pushed through measures in her budget that give the state and local municipalities more power to crack down on the thousands of illegal weed shops that have sprung up across the state.
“Frustrated local leaders have been powerless as these unlicensed shops operate right under their noses, ensuing chaos, destabilizing neighborhoods, and attracting other types of crime,” Hochul said. “The illicit operators who flout the rules because they know, at most, they'll be slapped with a fine that they have also figured out will take months and months to collect, if ever.”
Hochul said she will mobilize state police “swat teams” to padlock the illegal shops and give counties, towns, and villages the power to do so as well. “We're finally giving local governments the authority to create their own laws to padlock illicit shops. And shockingly, the way this was designed, localities were stuck on the sideline in this fight. That ends right now. Now they have the power to enforce. Like I said, this should have been the case all along,” the governor said.
Additionally, Hochul is going after landlords who knowingly give cover to illicit cannabis operators. “If you fail to evict a tenant you know who is selling cannabis illegally, we can hit you with a fine of up to $50,000,” she warned. The governor also pledged to bust up the pipeline of illegal cannabis coming in from other states, the major source of the unlicensed shops.
“The state’s rollout of adult-use cannabis has been an unmitigated disaster. There is no other way to more accurately or succinctly describe it,” said Brookhaven Town Supervisor Daniel Panico. “It is so bad that the state Attorney General's Office is working overtime to try and get their arms around the problem,” he said, adding, As for the state looking to the town to do their work, we already have more than enough to do and suffer from an abundance of mandates and an inadequacy of funding. While we remain consistent in our commitment to work together, it's imperative that the state comes forward with funding if they expect local governments to help clean up their mess.”
“Legalizing marijuana was a mistake,” concluded Senator Dean Murray (R,C–East Patchogue), who pointed out that he supports cannabis for medical use but not for recreational purposes. “We now know it's a mistake because they botched it so badly. They've lost tens of millions of dollars so far in revenue just because of how terribly they've screwed up the rollout,” the Senator said. “Illegal shops try to skirt the law by selling stickers, which are then traded for pot. “So they're not selling pot; they're selling stickers,” he explained. “This has to stop.”
Supporters of legalized weed argue that the state benefits from taxing the product and minorities and those previously busted for drug crimes–who are given priority for cannabis licenses–deserve to be compensated for their harsh treatment in the past. State taxpayers are being tapped by Hochul for millions of dollars to help pot entrepreneurs get their operations off the ground.
To clear the way for weed on a national scale, the Biden administration is pushing to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a potentially historic move that will make it easier to market the drug and increase profits for the multi-billion-dollar industry. Cannabis is still scheduled federally as a Class B drug which makes it illegal for banks to handle the accounts of those who deal in it. Biden’s move will open the financial spigot for the trade and facilitate more widespread use.
“It’s a disgrace that our government is rolling out the red carpet for a drug that has severe intoxicating effects on our citizenry, especially children,” said Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano, a Medford Republican who voted against recreational legalization. “I would like to see our society more studious, more productive, instead of walking around stoned all the time on state-legal pot.”