South Queens Assemblywoman Jenifer Rajkumar last Tuesday tabled legislation in the State Assembly that would give New York City and other municipalities in New York State the power to immediately close all illegal, unlicensed cannabis and other smoke shops.
Rajkumar — who represents the 38th Assembly District, encompassing the neighborhoods of Glendale, Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Ridgewood and Woodhaven – said the SMOKEOUT Act (A8428) is one of her “major priorities for passage” this session in Albany.
She said SMOKEOUT is the acronym for “Stop Marijuana Overproliferation and Keep Empty Operators of Unlicensed Transactions.”
“Illegal smoke shops are able to operate with almost total impunity because local municipalities lack authority to enforce cannabis shop violations,” said Rajkumar, also a lawyer, who made history as the first South Asian-American woman ever to be elected to a state office in New York.
“It is time to immediately close all 36,000 illegal smoke shops across our state, including the 1,500 illegal smoke shops fueling crime in New York City,” she added. “My legislation puts the power back in the hands of the people and municipalities, so that we can stop the sale of unlicensed cannabis that is endangering our children and our neighborhoods.
“We will come together as one State this Albany session and eliminate these epicenters of crime,” Rajkumar continued.
She noted that a 2021 bill, passed in Albany legalizing recreational cannabis, established a Cannabis Control Board as the only agency in the entire State of New York that is authorized to close unlicensed cannabis retailers and order the seizure of merchandise.
“Currently, New York City can only raid a smoke shop if there is suspicion of certain other violations, such as untaxed cigarettes,” Rajkumar said. “Even then, the city cannot close the shops.”
Upon passage of the SMOKEOUT Act, she said “New York City and all municipalities across the State will have the authority to close illegal smoke shops and seize all merchandise.
“This will allow New York City Mayor Eric Adams, and law enforcement statewide, to get into action swiftly shutting down smoke shops and permanently eliminating their blight,” said Rajkumar, noting that Adams has said that, “when granted the enforcement power from Albany, he could clear up the smoke shops problem in 30 days.”
Rajkumar initially disclosed her plans in December to introduce the legislation in Albany at a Mayoral Town Hall in Corona, Queens, drawing plaudits from Adams and boisterous applause from community leaders.
“I am proud to announce today that, in our State Capitol this session, I am introducing a bill to expand the City’s power to shut down the illegal, unlicensed smoke shops that are plaguing our communities,” she told the town hall. “These unlicensed illegal smoke shops are endangering the children of our community, and they are hotbeds of crime.”
At the town hall, Adams said: “The Cannabis Law that was passed was supposed to allow only those legal shops to open. The problem with the law, it did not give local municipalities the power and authority to go in and enforce the illegal shops.
“We are asking the representatives in Albany, that was the bill that Assemblywoman Rajkumar was talking about. We are saying, ‘Give us the enforcement power,’” he added. “Right now, the State has the enforcement power, and the State does not have the manpower to do the enforcement power.
“And so, many of these places are opening, and they’re laughing at the fines,” the mayor continued. “It’s the price of doing business. They’re making so much money that they’re just opening and continuing to sell to our children.
“And so, we’re hoping this year in Albany that we are now going to get the enforcement power,” Adams said.
Rajkumar said New York City is “now home” to an estimated 1,500 shops illegally selling cannabis without a license, and that there are an estimated 36,000 statewide.
“Smoke shops have become a magnet for crime in New York City: filled with valuable contraband and loose cash, they are a tantalizing target for armed robberies,” she said, stating that such robberies skyrocketed from 137 in 2021 to 593 in 2022, “or almost one robbery for every two smoke shops.
In 2023 alone, Rajkumar said there have been at least five fatal shootings in smoke shops, including one in her district.
“Often these unlicensed smoke shops also sell other contraband including untaxed cigarettes and psychedelics,” she said. “Some offer edibles appealing to children, packaged to resemble sugar cereals and other popular children’s snacks. Shops are opening across the street from schools.”
In addition to breeding crime and endangering neighborhoods, the assemblywoman said illegal smoke shops “unfairly compete with the legal cannabis dispensaries authorized by the Cannabis Law of 2021.”
She said these legal operators “underwent a lengthy licensure process and sell rigorously tested and regulated cannabis.
“Legal shops cannot meet the prices of illegal shops’ unregulated cannabis, and there are only 40 legal dispensaries across the state,” Rajkumar said. “This undermines the legalized cannabis program’s intent to provide economic empowerment to people who were impacted in the past by draconian drug laws, and to reinvest in communities that were historically targeted for enforcement.”
She also said cannabis products from illegal shops “even present a danger to the users,” stating that a random sampling of illegal smoke shop cannabis products found that 40 percent contained dangerous contaminants such as E. coli, salmonella, lead and pesticides.
“None met the safety standards of New York’s legal cannabis,” said Rajkumar, adding that “the current rate of smoke shop closures, however, is unacceptably slow, moving at snail’s pace since municipalities lack the authority to shutter them on their own.
“The staggering number of shops, combined with limited resources by the Cannabis Control Board, has resulted in it issuing only 305 orders for illegal smoke shops to close during 2023,” she continued. “This amounts to less than 1 percent of illegal shops. Even then, the Board often takes no action to enforce the order to close, and illegal shops continue to operate anyway.”
On Monday, the New York State Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) published the third in its series of enforcement action updates against unlicensed cannabis shops across the State in 2023.
During the month of December, OCM said its investigators and those from the Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF) inspected 48 shops, including 17 re-inspections, suspected of selling unlicensed cannabis.
OCM said these inspections resulted in the seizure of 465 pounds of flower, 537 pounds of edibles, and 35 pounds of concentrate, with an estimated value of $4,260,000.
These actions bring the total of inspections to 381 locations, 105 of which have been re-inspected, to yield over 11,800 pounds of seized illicit cannabis worth more than $57 million, OCM said.
It said it and DTF investigators “will continue inspections each and every week across the State in 2024 to shut down illicit operators as a new wave of legal dispensaries open their doors for business.”
On Dec. 20, OCM said its investigators, as well as those from DTF and the New York State Attorney General’s Office (OAG), “shut down and padlocked Big Chief Smoke Shop, an egregious illegal cannabis store operating in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, for operating without a license.”
OCM said local community leaders have “vocally opposed” Big Chief Smoke Shop, and the local community board passed a unanimous resolution to shut down unlicensed stores in their neighborhood.
OCM said it and DTF have “continued an aggressive schedule implementing their new enforcement authority against unlicensed cannabis retail operations.”
By the end of 2023, OCM said inspections had been conducted in all regions of New York: Western (Buffalo/ Niagara); Central (Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Ithaca); Southern Tier; Capital Region; North Country; Lower Hudson Valley; New York City; and Long Island.
In addition to the initial inspections carried out, OCM said it and DTF conducted re-inspections of locations that had been issued notices of violations during their initial inspection.
“These re-inspections occur to determine if the location is continuing to operate in defiance of a cease order or if they have in fact ceased their illegal conduct,” OCM said. “Those locations found to be operating contrary to the original cease order are identified, so that higher level fines can be assessed.
“By taking decisive action against unlicensed cannabis businesses, New York State is making significant strides towards shutting down unlawful and unlicensed cannabis operations that jeopardize public safety, consumer well-being, and the integrity the State’s legal cannabis market,” it added.
Chris Alexander, OCM’s executive director, said: “As we have said time and time again, the number one remedy for the problem of these illicit shops is getting more legal businesses open.
“When New Yorkers choose to shop at a legal, adult-use dispensary, they know where their products are coming from, that these cannabis products have been tested, and that these small businesses are reinvesting in our communities,” he said. “We will continue to seize illegal products, and we know that the collaborative work continues across all levels of government to address this public health issue.”
OCM said fines for the illegal sale of cannabis start at $10,000 per day and can rise up to $20,000 per day for the most egregious conduct.
An additional fine of $5,000 can be levied for removal of the Order, and the inspected businesses may also be subject to additional violations and penalties under the Tax Law., OCM said.
It said the enforcement legislation passed in May 2023 also authorizes OCM to seek a state court order to ultimately padlock businesses found to be in repeated violation of the law.
In addition, OCM said the law makes it a crime to sell cannabis and cannabis products without a license.
