New York’s state cannabis regulatory agency this week detailed its latest action to crack down on unlicensed cannabis shops. The New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) released a report on its efforts, noting it was the second in a monthly series of enforcement action updates against unlicensed cannabis shops across the State.

The agency reported that during November, investigators from OCM and the New York Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF) inspected 71 shops suspected of selling cannabis without a license, including re-inspections of 13 of the retailers. The inspections resulted in the seizure of 812 pounds of cannabis flower, 701 pounds of weed edibles and 61 pounds of concentrates. The OCM estimated the value of the seized weed products to be $7,284,986.

Last month’s enforcement actions brought to 350 the OCM’s total number of inspections of suspected unlicensed weed shops since beginning the effort in October. The agency, which was created after New York lawmakers legalized cannabis in the state in 2021, pledged to continue inspections of illicit cannabis retailers in conjunction with DTF investigators every week.

OCM Reports Court Victories

The OCM also reported on court victories in its effort to reign in New York’s unlicensed cannabis market. On November 21, OCM, in collaboration with the Office of the Attorney General (OAG), won its first petition for emergency relief under a new section of the state’s cannabis law that went into effect earlier this year. In the case, the court issued a permanent injunction and one-year permanent closing order against unlicensed operator David Tulley of “I’m Stuck” in Wayne County. The Court agreed with OCM and the OAG that Tulley had engaged in the unlicensed sale of cannabis and rejected Tulley’s argument that the “cannabis consulting business model” did not require a state-issued license.

“This victory established an important precedent allowing the State to seek longer term closures for businesses found to be illegally selling cannabis,” the OCM noted in a December 4 statement from the agency.

Additionally, on November 9 OCM and OAG secured a temporary restraining order and temporary order to close and padlock a shop against the unlicensed operator George West of Jaydega 7.0 in Canandaigua, New York. A hearing on the request for a permanent injunction and closure of the retailer is scheduled for next month in Ontario County Supreme Court. 

Fines As High As $20,000 Per Day

Fines for the illegal sale of cannabis start at $10,000 per day and can be increased to $20,000 for the most “egregious conduct,” the OCM noted. An additional fine of $5,000 can be levied for the removal of a closure order, and the inspected businesses may also be subject to additional violations and penalties under the state’s tax laws. Enforcement legislation passed in May 2023 also authorizes OCM to seek a state court order to padlock businesses found to be in repeated violation of the law. The new law also makes it a crime to sell cannabis and cannabis products without a license.

“As we look ahead to this next chapter in New York’s cannabis market, we continue to prioritize safety across the state by working diligently to shut down illegal operators,” OCM executive director Chris Alexander said in a statement on Monday. “The number one remedy for the problem of these illicit shops is getting more legal businesses open.”

“New Yorkers want to know where their products are coming from, and they know they can rely on safe, trusted, and locally grown cannabis when they walk into one of our legal dispensaries,” Alexander added. “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 crisis.”

Michelle Bodian, a partner in the New York office of the Vicente LLP and a member of the cannabis law firm’s licensing and regulatory compliance efforts in the state, said that much more action from regulators will be required before the illicit market can be contained.

“I appreciate that OCM is making an effort to be more transparent with the status of enforcement efforts; however, based upon these stats it seems like NY has a long road ahead,” Bodian wrote in an email to High Times. “I am cautiously optimistic the education and collaboration with municipalities will result in a rapid uptick in enforcement.”

The post New York Details Latest Efforts To Crack Down on Unlicensed Weed Businesses appeared first on High Times.

The post New York Details Latest Efforts To Crack Down on Unlicensed Weed Businesses appeared first on Paradise Found.

The top cannabis regulator in Michigan said Tuesday that the state is planning to “expose” businesses operating in the legal marijuana market that have engaged in illicit practices and sold illegal products.

The Detroit News reported that Brian Hanna, the acting director of the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency, told assembled media that “the agency is planning actions that will expose bad actors and serve as a warning to other regulated businesses.”

“If there’s anybody cutting corners or cheating, we want to expose that and take a strong enforcement approach on that,” Hanna told reporters, as quoted by the Detroit News.

The publication reported that some of the issues the regulatory agency intends to address are “proper tagging and registering of marijuana products in the statewide system and proper maintenance of required cameras — both requirements that, if abandoned, allow for a proliferation of illegal weed in regulated facilities and snarl state efforts to identify it.”

Hanna, who took over as acting director of the agency in September following the resignation of Andrew Brisbo in August, told reporters on Tuesday that “his focus over the first 90 days as acting director is to engage stakeholders to better understand what’s working in the industry and what isn’t, and to crack down on illicit cannabis products in the market, including marijunana that is grown and processed in other states,” according to the Detroit News. He also said that the “the department is hiring six new regulatory agents, two inspectors, two analysts and a laboratory specialist, is planning more unannounced inspections and is taking a second look at the department’s current operating procedures as it emerges from the pandemic, when the agency had pulled back much of its field staff.”

Michigan voters legalized recreational cannabis use when they approved a ballot measure in 2018. Adult-use marijuana sales began in late 2019. 

Earlier this year, the state consolidated the regulatory bodies overseeing the the processing and distribution of cannabis there, which resulted in the newly created Cannabis Regulatory Agency. 

Prior to the restructuring, hemp was regulated by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), while the Marijuana Regulatory Agency handled cannabis.

Now, the Cannabis Regulatory Agency oversees both.

“Consolidating multiple government functions into the newly named Cannabis Regulatory Agency will help us continue growing our economy and creating jobs,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in announcing the changes in February. “And to be blunt-safe, legal cannabis entrepreneurship, farming and consumption helps us put Michiganders first by directing the large windfall of tax revenue from this new industry to make bigger, bolder investments in local schools, roads, and first responders.” 

Earlier this month, the Cannabis Regulatory Agency issued a 30-day suspension of a marijuana retailer in Detroit, after it conducted “an unannounced compliance visit at the licensed provisioning center and observed multiple bags, backpacks, and duffle bags of suspected marijuana products that did not have the tracking identification numbers assigned by the statewide monitoring system (METRC) attached.”

After advising the retailer to “not to sell or destroy the untagged products until the investigation was completed and until guidance was given,” regulators returned “to the provisioning center facility and inquired about the untagged marijuana products,” only to discover that the remaining untagged products had been destroyed. 

“The Cannabis Regulatory Agency has a legal responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public,” said agency spokesman David Harns. “Our licensees must follow all of the rules and laws that govern the cannabis industry. Untagged marijuana products and the inability to provide video footage is simply unacceptable.”

The post Michigan Cannabis Regulator Plans Crackdown on Illicit Products appeared first on High Times.

The post Michigan Cannabis Regulator Plans Crackdown on Illicit Products appeared first on Paradise Found.

A pair of proposals in the Oregon legislature would take aim at the illicit cannabis operations that have troubled law enforcement and local governments in the southern part of the state.

Both the state Senate and House have recently approved legislation that “would increase scrutiny of legal cannabis licenses and water deliveries,” according to the Capital Press in Oregon.

Oregon voters passed a measure in 2014 that legalized recreational pot use for adults, but the underground operations have persisted, reaching what some officials have described as a crisis.

One bill that was unanimously approved by the state House on Monday would establish new “record-keeping requirements [that] would be imposed on water sellers and haulers,” the report said.

The bill, HB 4061, would “require water sales and delivery records to be available upon request, which would make it easier for law enforcement personnel to investigate suspicious activity.

The other bill, SB 1564, easily passed via a floor vote in the state Senate last week. It would enable counties throughout Oregon to suspend licenses for hemp licenses.

Originally, the bill “would have imposed a two-year moratorium on new hemp licenses statewide and allowed the Oregon Department of Agriculture to restrict licenses based on supply and demand for the crop,” according to the Capital Press, but the legislation was tweaked in order to give counties the discretion.

That’s because the illicit cannabis crisis is largely concentrated in the southern Oregon counties of Jackson and Josephine. 

Law enforcement and county governments there have been overwhelmed as of late with the number of illicit cannabis operations, many of which are cloaked as hemp farms. 

In October, the Jackson County Board of Commissioners declared a state of emergency there while requesting additional resources from the state to combat the problem, including the deployment of National Guard troops.

“Since recreational marijuana was legalized by the voters of Oregon in the November 2014 general election, the illegal and unlawful production of marijuana in our county has overwhelmed the ability of our county and state regulators to enforce relevant laws in our community,” Jackson County Commissioner Rick Dyer said at the time.

A month later, Oregon State Police seized almost 500,000 pounds of cannabis as part of a two-day raid on an illicit operation in Jackson County.

The state police said that more than “100 individuals were initially detained, identified, interviewed, and released, while several of the individuals were migrant workers living on-site in subpar living conditions without running water.”

A similar discovery was made in October in nearby Klamath County, which neighbors Jackson County to the east. 

The operation there was discovered to be inside a 27,000 square foot shed, which local reports said was “filled with marijuana in various stages of processing: drying in giant strands that stretched from the roof to the floor, buds pruned and stuffed into 40-pound bags, hundreds of those bags stacked against a wall and years of discarded marijuana waste in piles ready for disposal.”

State and county officials in Oregon have linked the illicit cannabis operations to the Mexican cartel.

Dyer said in November that busts have exposed human trafficking, forced labor and other ugly labor conditions that make the illicit operations a humanitarian problem as much as a drug problem.

“This is cartel activity,” Dyer said at the time. “A human rights crisis is what we are seeing going on at these grows.”

“It’s harder to ignore when it’s a regional declaration of an emergency,” he added. “And the more of a united front we present it will make it harder to ignore. It is a regional problem, and it could be a regional solution.”

The post Oregon Lawmakers Take On State’s Illicit Pot Operations appeared first on High Times.

The post Oregon Lawmakers Take On State’s Illicit Pot Operations appeared first on Paradise Found.