Hochul: Crackdown on illegal cannabis shops closes 345 businesses

Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday a crackdown on unlicensed cannabis shops has resulted in the padlocking of 345 businesses in the last three months.

Just eight of those were on Long Island, four in each county.

The governor touted the work of a new task force, combining personnel from State Police, the Office of Cannabis Management and the Tax Department, which has blitzed illicit cannabis shops over the last three months.

"Thousands of illegal cannabis storefronts across the state have plagued our communities and siphoned business from licensed retailers," Hochul said in a statement. "I launched the Illicit Cannabis Enforcement Task Force to quickly close these unlicensed shops, and today, more than 1,000 have been shuttered."

The Hochul administration said the task force completed more than 700 inspections since the panel was launched — resulting in about $29 million worth of illegal product being seized.

Besides the 345 padlocked businesses, another 136 shops either closed on their own or ceased illegal marijuana sales.

A key state senator praised the administration’s effort while saying more needs to be done.

"Yes, all this is crucial for deterrence," said Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), who carried the marijuana legalization bill through the Senate.

"They need to keep going and they need to make sure (shops) are following the law and the padlocks need to stay on and the fines don’t get thrown out in court," Krueger added.

Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan) said his district has seen some "notorious" illegal shops closed, and added the task force needs to focus on "dozens that are still operating, mostly under the guise of ‘smoke shops’ selling other products."

"This should be the next frontier of enforcement," Hoylman-Sigal said.

The task force was part of an overall shakeup of New York’s efforts to not only curb illegal sales but also turn around the state’s bungled rollout of licensed shops, which had allowed illicit shops to fill the void and thrive.

Regulations were slow to be put in place as was staff. A New York goal of awarding the first batch of licenses to certain qualifiers, including "justice involved" individuals — someone who had a past marijuana conviction — became the subject of litigation, holding up license awards for a period.

OCM had received more than 7,000 applications and issued more than 500 retail dispensary licenses. But by early this year, just over 80 opened — instead of the hundreds and hundreds officials had predicted.

Meanwhile, illicit shops swooped in to fill the market, sometimes offering lower prices than legal dispensaries — which then made it harder for legal shops to gain footing.

The Hochul administration said a bottleneck of license applications has begun to be addressed. As of August, 166 licensed cannabis dispensaries had been opened.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy