New York’s state budget was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) Friday statement is notable for omitting a controversial provision on marijuana that the Governor proposed earlier in the year. This would have permitted police to use marijuana smell as a probable cause to believe a driver was impaired, and force him to submit to a drug screen.
The amendments passed in the Legislature this week have removed that provision. A coalition of 60 reform organizations had written to Hochul, and other top legislators to warn them of “some of the worst effects of the War on Drugs,” and to allow the law enforcement agencies to “restart the unconstitutional profiling of race of drivers.”
Reform advocates, the Assembly majority leader of New York and the head of Governor-appointed Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) all criticized the governor’s proposal. Both had said that it would undercut the legalization goal and be “not working for New York.”
New York is known for having some of the most pronounced racial differences in enforcement laws. Blacks in New York City were, for example, nine times more likely than whites to be arrested by police in 2010s.
Hochul’s budget bill originally included a provision that would allow law enforcement officers to search vehicles if they smelled “cannabis, burned cannabis, or any other drugs”. The amended bill, approved this week by the lawmakers, has removed that clause.
On Thursday, after the two chambers voted to approve the change, the bill was presented to the governor and signed the following morning.
In the new budget for state, there are other cannabis related provisions. One change is that the salary for the Cannabis Control Board Chair (CCB) has been reduced from $229,000 to $192,000 per year.
Tremaine Wight, a government official who has been in her position for ten years, announced this week she would not be leaving.
Wright told Spectrum News that she didn’t accept the job for its salary. Wright spoke at a Women in Weed Luncheon in Albany. “I accepted this position before the pay was even decided.”
Wright claimed that CCB’s relationship with the governor’s offices is good and that Wright’s salary has not been cut as a result of bad feelings.
She said, “This is an ever-changing landscape.” She said, “Just as licensees and applicants had to react to changing demands and respond in real-time to the changes that occurred along the way,” the board also had to do so.
Hochul’s spokesperson Kassie white said in a press release that the position of chairing a state-level board is “generally a voluntary and unpaid one for those interested in pursuing a career as a public servant, and the enacted Budget will align the CCB governance structure with the other state boards.”
The new budget also includes $5 million for the hiring of more enforcement staff at the Office of Cannabis Management.
In New York, an OCM report from last year shows that the state’s licensed marijuana retailers grew nearly threefold in one year. This will result in a total sale of $870,000,000 in 2024.
OCM announced late last year that New York’s legal cannabis industry is on the verge of reaching $1.5 billion in sales.
In advance of 4/20 last month regulators also launched a “higher-education” campaign to inform adults on how “to make informed and responsible decisions about marijuana,” as well as how to find retailers licensed by the state.
This office advises “Continued Enforcement against the Illicit Market is Critical to Building a Health Regulated Market,” and points out what they describe as successful enforcement in 2024. Operation Padlock is an enforcement program that was implemented by New York City officials last spring to close illegal shopfronts. A survey by OCM found that within six months, the sales of licensed shops which were already open when Operation Padlock began had risen 105 per cent.
Also last month, New York cannabis regulators and labor officials announced the launch of a workforce training program aimed at “providing comprehensive safety education to workers” in the state’s legal marijuana industry.
Separately, OCM’s press secretary recently indicated the office is working on plans to expand permitting and licensing rules that could allow adults to buy and consume marijuana at movie theaters. New York would be unique if it allowed the sale of cannabis in theaters, as part of its ongoing efforts to implement New York’s state legalization laws.
Just days before, Gov. Kathy Hochul, (D), signed into law a pair companion bills that were meant to expand New York’s marijuana farmers markets program.
New York initially authorized cannabis farmers market events in 2023, aiming to expedite consumers access as traditional retailers were being approved and help producers bring their products directly to market. Last December, Hochul separately signed legislation to revive the program after it sunsetted in January 2024.
The farmers market events as originally authorized were largely responsive to the slow roll-out of New York’s adult-use marijuana program, which faced multiple delays in implementation amid litigation. But the state’s industry has gradually expanded, with officials in January touting $1 billion in total sales since the market launched.
State officials also recently launched a grant program that will award up to $30,000 apiece to retail marijuana businesses to help cover startup costs.
Also, earlier this year, a collective of businesses licensed under the CAURD program called on Hochul to forgive tens of millions of dollars in high-cost loans issued under a governor-created social equity loan fund.
Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes (D) said in December that there’s a need to extend financial aid to CAURD license holders, many of whom are struggling under the high-cost loans.
Critics—including the NAACP New York State Conference, Black Cannabis Industry Association, Minority Cannabis Business Association, Service Disabled Veterans in Cannabis Association, Drug Policy Alliance, NYC NORML and VOCAL-NY—wrote to the governor earlier that month to express dismay at what they described as marijuana regulators’ “efforts in service of big corporations at the expense of small business and equity outcomes.”
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Side Pocket Images. Image courtesy Chris Wallis.