Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Unveils New Initiatives to Shut Down Illicit Cannabis Operations and Protect Legal Marketplace in FY25 Budget Agreement

Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Unveils New Initiatives to Shut Down Illicit Cannabis Operations and Protect Legal Marketplace in FY25 Budget Agreement

Governor Kathy Hochul today unveiled new initiatives to shut down illicit cannabis operations and protect the legal marketplace as part of the FY25 Enacted Budget. The plan provides the Office of Cannabis Management and local municipalities with new authority to take action against illicit storefronts and those who enable them. The initiatives are the strongest set of policies enacted thus far to tackle the illicit cannabis marketplace.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning. This is a great day. We've waited far too long for this reckoning with all of the illegal shops and your day has come. First of all, I want to acknowledge people you'll be hearing from momentarily, but Mayor Eric Adams - representing all the frustrated local elected leaders across our State but more so here in New York City where this proliferation of illegal shops has been a source of enormous frustration. And I want to thank the Mayor for championing this effort that we're announcing here today to get this done with our State Legislators and to have a win for the people who want to do the right thing. So, let's give a round of applause to Mayor Adams.

Council Member Gale Brewer, never get in her way. It's just not worth it. She's been a friend of mine for many, many years, and I admire her tenacity. She never gives up, and we'll be hearing from her in a couple of moments. Steven James, the superintendent of the New York State Police, who's redefining the role of our State Police as SWAT teams that I can deploy when an issue arises.

For example, yesterday we spoke about how we're going to be using our State Police, adding 100 officers', members of State Police to fight retail theft. The same coordination is going to occur here with this initiative. So, I want to thank him as well. Osbert Orduña, the chief executive officer of the Cannabis Place, one of the most patient men I've ever met.

He has brought this to our attention, he is legal, and he's been surrounded by illegals and he is waiting for some relief. So, I want to thank him for coming here, coming to Albany, and being a voice of reason for all of us. Daniel Haughney, the Director of Investigation Enforcement at the Office of Canada's Management, and of course our Sheriff Miranda has joined us as well.

And I want to thank him because he and the men and women of his department have a key role in helping restore sanity to our neighborhood. So, I want to thank him. Let's give them all a round of applause. And to all of the business owners, the business owners and the community leaders who brought us to this point today with their insistence that the law had to change, and I'm so glad we could get that over the finish line.

A day ago, I stood here talking about my promise to protect small businesses from the scourge of retail theft. Well, I made another promise to the legal cannabis dispensaries and the communities where the illegal shops just seem to lie on every other corner. 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.

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. Licensed owners like Osbert and so many others like him, they stake their entire futures on New York's legal cannabis industry.

They did everything right. They pay their taxes, source their product from New York farms, and they don't sell to minors. And yet, they're forced to compete with rampant bad actors who play by an entirely different set of rules. People who run these illicit shops engage in fraudulent advertising about what's in their products because they don't really care about your health.

They'll source their product from anywhere, because they don't care about New York farmers. They'll sell cannabis, gummy rings, ice cream cones, chocolate bars, because they don't care about your kids. And they'll evade the taxes because they don't care about the communities where they operate.

In doing so, they make a mockery of our laws and believe that nothing will ever stop them. And until today, they've mostly been right. My friends, the insanity stops right now. Why? Because I kept my promises, we kept our promises in doing exactly what we said we would do. I'm using the power of the State Budget to give us the tools we need at the State and local level to shutter these illegal shops once and for all.

We got it done and we did it in partnership with our extraordinary leaders. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and all the other champions - the architect of these laws - Liz Krueger, Crystal Peoples-Stokes, and the many others who participated in formulating this package with us.

At a future date, we'll be having a bill signing and inviting all of them when they've completed their business, which hopefully will be any day now. And all the other legislators who've been supportive of this, we will be celebrating with them at the conclusion of the session, as I mentioned. We'll celebrate because very soon, we will restore stability and order in these neighborhoods.

We'll weed out the illegitimate shops and clear the way for the licensed owners so they can grow their budding businesses and realize their dreams. And remember, many of these are Black, Latino, women, immigrant, military, veteran, entrepreneurs. Some have been harmed by the long and futile war on drugs.

These are the people that our cannabis laws were meant to empower. I'm fighting for them. And now just like our efforts to combat retail theft, we have a five-point plan.

Point one: the State will have the power to padlock the doors of these illicit shops. And I'd like to point out - do I have a padlock here? Alright, Mayor, let's hold up the padlock, Mayor. We got the padlock. Is this really a strong one, Mayor? Alright, there you go. You can keep your padlock. We're going to be able to padlock these illicit shops. All we have to do is verify that you're selling products that are not tested or labeled in accordance with our laws.

Once we do that, the padlock goes on immediately. See, we hit these shops with a fine, hearings and appeals, they drag on. Guess what? During that process, they stay open and haul in more and more cash and everybody knows it. And right now, these fines are just a small cost of doing business in their minds.

But you know what's hard to factor into your business model? Having your front door padlocked for up to a year. You could appeal the fine. You'll get your due process. But while the due process plays out, the padlock stays on. And it won't just be the State coming after you.

Which brings me to point two. We're finally giving local governments 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.

Here in New York City, I have no doubt that enforcement will start immediately. We're marshalling the power of the New York City Sheriff's Office and I want to thank again Sheriff Miranda for being such a great partner in writing the laws but also implementing them. They'll be able to ramp up enforcement. And to add even more resources to this, the sheriff's office can then deputize the NYPD to help with these enforcement efforts. See what we're doing here? Bringing a lot of people out to say, "The gig is up."

And remember right now, up until now, the Office of Cannabis Management and the Department of Tax and Finance have been the only agencies empowered to enforce the cannabis laws. Not a good model. There are not exactly thousands of them out in the streets. So, by enlisting the localities, not just here in New York, but all across the State, this is not confined to New York City at all - we'll have exponentially more people investigating and eventually helping shuttering these illegal stores.

But we're not just focused on the flagrant illegal smoke shops either.

That brings me to point three: rooting out illegal cannabis products out of the bodegas. Now let me be clear, we're not out to close down bodegas but under our new law, we'll notify bodega owners if they continue to sell illegal products, we'll take away their liquor, tobacco, and lottery licenses. And if they still don't comply, then we can put a padlock on their doors.

Point four: we're going after the landlords who knowingly give cover to illicit cannabis operators. Here in New York City, 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.

And point five: I mentioned the State Police. We're forming a statewide task force that'll carry out civil enforcement to close the illegal stores, also while going after their suppliers and busting up the pipeline of illegal cannabis coming in from other states where much of it is. That's what the illegal storefronts are relying on. This will require close collaboration between State Agencies and local law enforcement, something from the beginning of my term we've proven we're very good at. New York State Police will play a key role here, and we're already recruiting personnel from other agencies to join the effort. We'll have more details about the formal launch of this task force in the near future.

Now let me be clear, I want to right-size expectations. They got a head start, there's a lot of them out there. Meanwhile, we're pushing and pushing and pushing to get more legal licenses in the pipeline approved and get more legal shops open. That is a top priority of mine. We have a lot of catch up to do.

And the illegal shops will not disappear overnight. But New Yorkers eventually will see a change in their communities. And that's what we're looking for. And throughout the negotiations, I'll also say this - a lot of tension on this issue, believe it or not. I heard pundits weigh in about the enforcement. I would have to say they're misguided. That they think that somehow this is going to return us to the bad old days of mass incarceration of people of color, making cannabis illegal itself. Nothing could be further from the truth.

But I want to point out that two thirds of legal dispensaries are Minority and Women-owned Businesses thus far. Just in the last year, we've doubled the number of Black-owned dispensaries, legal Black-owned dispensaries that exist nationwide. This isn't happening anywhere else. There's no intentionality to help people of color like we're doing here in New York. That's what sets us apart, and I'm proud of that.

New York has more legal shops owned by people directly harmed by disproportionate drug enforcement than any other state combined. These are the people we're fighting for because they are harmed the most. They're harmed the most by these illicit operators. They're the ones losing money. And our law was written to empower people with prior cannabis related convictions, as well as veterans and MWBEs, to just get a jumpstart. Get them in the door first. There's plenty of opportunities for everybody. And that's why, in accordance with our law, we issued them the licenses first.

But giving them priority means nothing if the bad actors are flooding the market with impunity. And that's why I fought for these elevated enforcement measures. Because they actually go hand-in-hand with equity. Let me say this, New York's legal cannabis industry has reached a pivotal point. Out of state corporate conglomerates that tried to commandeer with a bevy of lawsuits, jamming us up, four months, six months, a year, jamming us up in courts so we could not continue the rollout as planned.

But we fought them off. With those legal battles finally behind us, momentum is picking up. I mentioned we have more than 100 legal dispensaries across New York. And now, thanks to the Budget we've negotiated, we have a five-point plan to shutter the illegal operators. By padlocking illicit shops, we can finally put an end to the chaos that has permeated these neighborhoods. We can build a fair and competitive legal market where tax revenue is actually reinvested in the communities harmed by the laws of the past. Where consumers will know what's in their products and know that they're safe and where licensed owners can thrive and build generational wealth for themselves and their families. Thank you.

With that, let me bring up Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York City, who has been an extraordinary partner in fighting crime wherever it rears its ugly head. And this is just the beginning of taking on these illicit shops throughout the City of New York. And until the next challenge meets our way, we'll be ready for that as well. Mayor Adams.

Contact the Governor's Press Office