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During a joint committee on health hearing held on Jan. 18, 2023, New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda noted that current state surveys had identified “about 1400 locations’’ referred to as “unlicensed smoke shops.” Miranda noted the figure included “illegal smoke or vapes or cannabis business.”
The media has since run rampant with the figure, with outlets including ABC 7 and The New York Post incorrectly attributing the entire total to cannabis shops. During a conversation with NY Cannabis Insider last week, Sheriff Miranda reiterated that the figure was not exclusive to THC sales. He also provided updated numbers regarding unlicensed smoke shops, assets seized and civil penalties.
Despite claims made by some unlicensed shop owners, Miranda said no inspected unlicensed location was in compliance with the Office of Cannabis Management’s rules. He also relayed reports of unlicensed shops mixing products with an unspecified “THC liquid.”
Below is the conversation between Sheriff Miranda and NY Cannabis Insider.
The following has been lightly edited for clarity.
The Department of Finance explained that the Sheriff’s Task Force conducted 207 inspections as of January 2023. How did that lead to over 1400 estimated unlicensed locations?
We get information from the community and agencies, as well, including NYPD, DCWP (Department of Consumer and Worker Protection), DOH (Department of Housing) and MH (Mental Health). Various sources give us the information, we maintain the database for the mayor’s office. The agencies who gather intelligence from the community complaints could be elected officials as well – could be community residents that make complaints. All that information comes into one portal of information that is shared.
And then we have to verify, right? Just because somebody says something is happening doesn’t mean it is. People can imagine all kinds of things and say they sell something and that may not be the case. So every allegation has to be investigated and properly vetted before we take any action.
Did the inspections include bodegas and smoke shops, or were they focused on unlicensed cannabis shops?
The general classification is smoke shops. They include bodegas and any other locations that are reported being involved in any of the legal businesses, which would be not only cannabis. It would also be cigarettes and vape products. We covered the whole gamut of illegality, not just one.
The 1400 locations reported in January were not just cannabis locations. They were called smoke shops. They weren’t considered just cannabis.
How much has the list grown since January?
I can safely say that we’ve passed 2000 at this point.
How many inspections has that led to?
Total number of inspections as of June: 756.
And the civil penalties and total cost of products seized?
We’re over $10 million in civil penalties that have been issued.
How much of your team’s day is focused on cannabis enforcement?
The sheriff’s office has a number of responsibilities. This is just one of them, right? So we’re engaged in all kinds of other activities as well.
But in this particular respect, we work with the NYPD, DCWP, OCM, DOH and MH. We join forces when they collaborate on investigations, and they also do independent investigations as well. So it does take a great deal of work. You gotta do some surveillance, sometimes do some regular inspections and then we go out and do the seizure inspections where we actually take all the product off the shelf and issue additional violations.
What’s the timeline from taking those initial measures to potential enforcement?
That would vary based on the type of allegation and how much intelligence we’ve received already – especially if there’s any reports of people getting sick in the community or underage sales. Those take priority. Anything by our schools would be a priority location – schools, houses of worship, across the street from parks where the kids are frequenting, then those locations would tend to have a priority action.
What kind of feedback have you heard from the community and particularly the cannabis industry?
I think everybody understands that the initial decriminalization of cannabis was so that the person with less than three ounces can legally possess cannabis. It was meant to protect the people who are engaging in using the product.
The enforcement that’s going on now has to deal with the fact that you have a legal licensed business that has now been authorized to kind of fill that gap. Then people are illegally selling, right? That’s where our enforcement is focused on, not on the average person who’s consuming the product. We’re really focusing on the people who are illegally selling an unlicensed product.
It’s also a health protection for the people who would normally engage. They need to be sure that the products that they’re buying are really cannabis and would not get them sick.
We find in our inspections that there’s all kinds of variations of what people decide to mix with this product. And it’s really a health hazard now endangering the community that would normally engage in it. So, I think we have to give the opportunity for the legal market, the licensed market, to be able to grow and be able to fill that space.
One of the things that I found interesting was a lot of the unlicensed operators – either people waiting to get a license or some that plan on staying on the unlicensed side – they actually kind of agree that a lot of these shops are a problem. They feel the product in these shops harms the reputation of both sides of the market.
I understand that the decriminalization was not done to recriminalize an entire community that was probably historically victimized, right? That is not the goal here. The goal is to try to have a product that is both safe and secure for the people who want to engage.
We find ourselves aligned with not only the community, but the people who want to engage in the legal business as well. And we tell the people who are illegally engaged in the process right now that they are jeopardizing the potential for them participating in the legal market because we’re reporting that to OCM. They’re keeping a record of those violations as well.
Some have said that some of these unlicensed shops are operating compliantly, essentially demonstrating a proof of concept.
The Office of Cannabis Management has all the rules and regulations by which somebody can legally participate. That includes packaging, lighting, location. So if you’re across the street from a school, there are no guidelines for that. You’re in violation. You have no intention of participating in the legal market. You’re making a conscientious choice to be in the illegal market. And you don’t want to abide by the rules and regulations.
So if they were really trying to participate in the legal market, then they would have been packaging the same way that’s authorized. They wouldn’t have all the lights and things that attract children. They would not have packaging that attracts underage kids, right? Because when you have Rice Krispies and all these other flavors and things, that’s not for the adults. That is if you’re attracting a younger market, an underage market, and that’s who you’re trying to sell to, which is illegal. Even the people who participate in the market don’t want this thing to be sold to underage kids.
They clearly understand the rules. Everybody understands the potential danger here. And again, we’ve raided places and inspected places and seized product that they were mixing in the basement with THC liquid. They had no way of regulating how much THC was being given to a person.
But there have been some unlicensed shops claiming to act in compliance with the laws.
I haven’t found one shop that makes that claim that has abided by the law. If they were really, truly trying to participate in the legal market, they will follow all the rules and regulations that have already been promulgated by the state Office of Cannabis Management.
There’s no defensible position that they could have. There’s no excuse for unnecessarily endangering people. The health impact here is tremendous as well.
I haven’t found one location that we went into that was complying with all the rules and regulations that have been posted by the state Office of Cannabis Management.